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Huawei ships 34m smartphones globally

By Reuters
Hong Kong, 29 Jul 2014

China's Huawei said smartphone shipments in the first half rose 62% year-on-year, as it targets the more expensive smartphone sector dominated by Samsung and Apple.

Shenzhen-based Huawei has shipped 34.27 million smartphones globally in the first six months ending 30 June ? about 43% of its annual shipment target of 80 million, according to Reuters' calculations based on figures provided by Huawei.

"We recorded faster growth in areas such as Middle East and Africa and Latin America, with 275% and 550% year-on-year growth in the second quarter, respectively," Shao Yang, VP of marketing in the consumer business group, told Reuters in a written statement.

He attributed the growth to improving brand awareness and stronger sales channels in overseas markets.

"Based on the growth momentum at the moment, we are firmly moving toward our full-year target," Shao said, adding that smartphones are now accounting for 97% of Huawei's global phone shipments.

The company, which competes with Chinese makers Lenovo and ZTE, shipped about 21 million smartphones globally in the second quarter ending 30 June, an 85% rise from the same period of last year.

Huawei's strong growth in smartphone shipments confirms the challenge facing market leader Samsung, which issued unexpectedly weak quarterly earnings guidance citing increasing competition from Chinese rivals who are offering high-end models at cheaper prices.

Among the 80 million smartphones Huawei is planning to ship this year, about 20% of them would be mid- to high-end models, up from the 16% shipped in 2013, the company told Reuters earlier this year.

But industry watchers said Huawei still faces strong headwinds in its efforts to break into the premium handset market, a segment that Apple has continued to dominate.

The Cupertino company this month reported surprisingly strong smartphone sales in China, reaffirming the allure of the iPhone brand among China's well-to-do.

In China, Huawei said it had shipped more than 20 million smart devices, including smartphones and tablets, in the first half of this year.

Shao said Huawei had a long-term and stable partnership with China's three major carriers, which would give the company an advantage over foreign rivals such as Samsung and Apple in the world's largest smartphone market.

But he declined to reveal how many smartphones it had shipped in China in the first half.

Huawei had a 4.7% share of the global smartphone market in the first quarter of this year, a distant third behind Samsung with 30.8% and Apple with 15.2%, according to IDC.

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