Huawei on track for record smartphone shipments in 2018, defying outlook worries amid CFO arrest

China’s leading smartphone brand Huawei Technologies said it is on target to ship 200 million smartphone units in 2018 thanks to rapid growth in the past three quarters even as speculation swirls that the detention of its CFO Sabrina Meng Wanzhou might cloud its business outlook for the coming year.

The combined global shipments of Huawei’s two smartphone brands, Huawei and Honor, are expected to reach 200 million by December 25, the president of Huawei’s smartphone division He Gang said on Monday.

The company will release a special edition handset on the same day to mark the 200 million milestone, according to Huawei’s official Sina Weibo account.

Huawei, which surpassed Apple in both the second and third quarter this year to become the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor behind South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, has seen explosive growth in its smartphone division which is now approaching the revenue contribution seen from its core telecoms equipment business, according to its 2017 annual report released in March.

In the third quarter of 2018, Huawei’s global mobile phone shipments surged 32.9 per cent from the same period last year, ranking second globally with shipments of 52 million units, according to IDC. Samsung and Apple rank first and third with shipments of 72.2 million and 46.9 million respectively. Apple’s quarterly number was down 13.4 per cent year on year while Samsung managed a tepid 0.5 per cent year on year expansion during the three-month period.