Huawei’s Honor line of low-cost smartphones, of which the Honor 6 Plus pictured above is the latest member, has seen massive growth in the last 12 months. As Reuters is reporting, it seems that Huawei’s effort to join the low-cost smartphone battle in China is paying off. The Chinese company has long been a name associated with quality smartphones, but in China their devices have often been out of reach for a lot of customers. Either that, or Xiaomi offers a better device, for much less. The Honor line has apparently gone from selling 1 Million units to a staggering 20 Million units in just one year. That’s the sort of growth anyone would be jealous of.
Huawei’s Honor brand sells devices not just in China, but in growing markets like Latin America and parts of Europe. Just like their smaller rival, Xiaomi, Huawei sells their Honor smartphones online only. As Jeff Liu, the head of the Honor brand puts it, “E-commerce is massively changing the traditional channels for the smartphone industry, and we needed to go in that direction too”. As much as 30% of a smartphone’s cost could come from distributing it through traditional retail channels. Selling online allows them to simply produce a product, and ship it. Strong online marketing has also helped the brand become successful, along with the ditching of the Huawei moniker.
Honor devices are no sold as simply that, with the Huawei name now absent from Honor smartphones. This could have helped shake off the perception of an expensive smartphone in China, and elsewhere it might encourage buyers to think twice when purchasing a Chinese smartphone. There’s no denying these smartphones are great value for money, the Honor 6 Plus announced just last week is a good smartphone period, regardless of price. There’s worry thought that this sort of price war could push margins down to their thinnest, thus making it difficult for anyone but the big players like Xiaomi, Huawei and ZTE to make any real money. The race between Huawei’s Honor brand and Xiaomi is on, and 2015 is going to be a very interesting year for the Chinese smartphone market.