Huawei on Friday published its consolidated financial report for 2017, revealing its net profit reached the equivalent of $7.3 billion last year, a 28-percent increase compared to 2017. The tech giant’s units encompassing North and South America shrank by 10.9-percent over the same period and now account for only 6.5-percent of its overall business. The consumer division generated nearly 40-percent of the firm’s $96.17 billion revenue, having grown by almost 32-percent. The improved performance is largely attributed to smartphones, with Huawei managing to ship 153 million Android handsets over the course of the last year, with that figure also including its subsidiary Honor.
The declining performance of the Americas division is largely attributed to a decrease in network spending in Latin America and the original equipment manufacturer’s troubles in the United States where Washington effectively blocked it from ramping up its operations. While Huawei was close to releasing the Mate 10 Pro through AT&T in January, a late intervention from regulators pressured the second largest wireless carrier in the country to drop the partnership approximately 24 hours before the thereof was meant to be announced at CES in Las Vegas. The Mate 10 lineup was still highlighted in Huawei’s financial report, with the company boasting about its Android flagship being the world’s first device with a dedicated neural processing unit solely designed for enabling on-device artificial intelligence applications. The module is part of the Kirin 970 chip from Huawei’s subsidiary HiSilicon which is also found inside the newly announced P20, P20 Pro, and the Porsche Design Mate RS.
The company’s home country of China is still its most important market accounting for over half of its revenue, whereas its carrier division dedicated to manufacturing network equipment and developing related software solutions generated 49.3-percent of its 2017 turnover. Huawei is expected to continue growing going forward, largely backed by the incoming 5G commercialization and the fact that its electronics are gaining traction in most parts of the world, save for North America. The company also claims its global brand awareness experienced an 86-percent boost throughout 2017, with the increased visibility of its products being largely attributed to foreign markets where twice as many consumers were considering purchasing a Huawei or Honor-branded device last year. While Huawei has already been the world’s third largest smartphone vendor by shipments and sales for some time now, 2017 also saw it become the third most recognizable handset brand on the planet, the firm claims.