While Huawei may not be a household name here in the U.S., the company is currently sitting in the number three position for global smartphone sales. Spots one and two are occupied by none other than Samsung and Apple, with 30% and 16% respectively, but Huawei holds almost 6% according to a market share statistic for last year with LG and Lenovo rounding out the top five.
Now, 6% may not seem like a lot, who’s not in the top five may be more telling. HTC. Sony. Nokia. While those companies haven’t exactly been tearing up the mobile market, they’re not just sitting around, doing nothing. Yet, Huawei’s smartphone division is posting some strong numbers within the company. Their revenue was up 19% as a whole for the first half of the year and last year their consumer electronics business generated 70% of its revenue from telecommunication sales. And according to a memo seen by the Wall Street Journal, Huawei sold 30% more smartphones and consumer electronics during the first half of this year. By comparison, the number one seed, Samsung, is expecting to post a poor Q2 earnings report.
Even though there is talk of the smartphone market reaching the dreaded saturation point, Huawei is seeing most of its growth in emerging markets. According to a memo sent out by the head of Huawei’s consumer business group, Richard Yu, their strongest growth is in areas such as the northern part of Latin America, namely Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, and followed by the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.
This memo, titled “Don’t Fall Behind,” states that his group has already reached half of its 2014 profit target within six months, seemingly right on schedule. Bucking some analysts, Huawei’s game plan of focusing more on the mid- to high-end smartphones such as the Ascend Mate 2 and the Ascend P7 is apparently working well for them. (Click on the links to see what we said about those phones.) Although no sales figures have been disclosed yet for the company, their numbers so far look good enough to help them maintain the position of third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.