Huawei Consumer Business Group is presently enjoying strong growth across a number of segments and has surpassed Apple to become the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer but its Chief Executive Officer Richard Yu isn’t concerned about market share percentages. While speaking at a Friday media briefing in the company’s home city of Shenzhen, China, the industry veteran said the tech giant remains primarily focused on ramping up its revenues and profits, whereas having a large market share by itself isn’t a goal that it deems particularly desirable if the former two requirements haven’t been met.
Mr. Yu asserted that increasing one’s market share in the mobile industry is usually as simple as launching more low-end devices with aggressive price tags, pointing to that strategy as something some of its rivals have been employing in recent times. While Huawei’s chief avoided naming any particular company, the CEO was likely referring to Samsung whose catch-all approach to mobile development brought it to the position of by far the largest smartphone maker on the planet by both shipments and sales. “We’d already be number one in market share [with that tactic]. But that’s not what we are pursuing,” Mr. Yu said.
Huawei’s revenue surpassed $47 billion in the first half of the year, up 15-percent annually, with the company’s strong performance being largely driven by excellent sales in the premium segment of the smartphone market that’s traditionally associated with the highest profit margins in the industry. The company on Friday said it sold over 19 million Android flagships over the same period, further highlighting the revenue-focused strategy described by Mr. Yu as the way to move forward and continue pursuing sustainable growth. Earlier today, the executive also confirmed the rumored announcement date of the Kirin 980, the next high-end system-on-chip from Huawei‘s semiconductor subsidiary HiSilicon, adding that the new chipset will debut additional advancements in on-device artificial intelligence computing and mobile photography. The company will be unveiling the SoC at its IFA 2018 keynote in Berlin, Germany, taking place on August 31.