China Focus: Huawei ships 100 mln smartphones in 2015

Chinese tech company Huawei announced Tuesday its smartphone shipments have topped 100 million this year, breaking the record among domestic players and making it the world's third biggest mobile brand following Samsung and Apple.

The market share of Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Company has risen to 9 percent globally and surpassed 15 percent in China, leading for six consecutive months, data from a third-party market consulting agency showed.

"It's a stunning increase," said He Gang, president of Huawei's mobile phone line. "Beginning in 2010 with a sales figure of no more than 3 million, Huawei took five years to reach 75 million and another year to achieve 100 million."

He said Huawei has gained a firm foothold in the middle and high-end market over the past year, thanks to innovation and marketing. Middle and high-end smartphones costing more than 2,000 yuan (308 U.S. dollars) jumped to 33 percent of Huawei's total shipments in the third quarter in China.

Huawei's Mate 7 alone has sold 7 million sets so far, making it one of the most popular smartphone models in China. Sales of the new Mate 8 in the first two weeks were ten times that of Mate 7.

Mate 8 falls in the same price category as the Samsung Galaxy series and Apple's iPhone models.

"It's just a matter of time before we introduce high-end smartphones at a price above 5,000 yuan," He said.

Huawei has also been nurturing its overseas terminal market. The company's mobile phones are sold in more than 170 countries and regions.

Smartphones sold for between 400 and 500 euros claimed a market share of more than 60 percent in some Western European countries. Huawei also saw a good year in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe, where the number of smartphones it sold reached more than 3.46 million and increased 114 percent compared with the same period last year.

Huawei has already overtaken Samsung and Apple in some developed countries, including Spain and Portugal. International sales are expected to account for 40 percent of the company's revenue by 2016.

According to a company report released on Tuesday, Huawei invested 40.8 billion yuan in research and development in 2014, or 14.2 percent of annual revenue.

Huawei has set up 16 overseas R&D institutions, according to CEO Ren Zhengfei, adding his company has invested more than 190 billion yuan in technological innovation and holds a total of 76,687 patents. More than 18,000 patents are related to terminals, which has laid a foundation for expanding its smartphone offerings.

"We are putting money in all the cutting-edge technology in the communications industry. Huawei is not second to global brands such as Ericsson and Nokia in technology," He said.

"Believe it or not, our goal is to overtake Apple in the near future," He said. Endi