Chinese manufacturer Huawei aims to take on the likes of Apple in terms of smartphone sales in the next two years. According to a report by Reuters, chief executive of Huawei’s business group, Richard Yu, told the publication about the company’s intent on becoming the world’s second largest smartphone manufacturer in two years.
“When we announced four years ago that we wanted to sell phones, people told us we were crazy. When we said we wanted to sell 100 million phones, they told us we were crazy,” said Yu.
Huawei’s forte has primarily been its telecommunications networks infrastructure, but in past few years the company has excelled in the consumer devices market as well. The Chinese manufacturer is now the third largest smartphone maker in the world, only after Apple and global leader Samsung.
The report further adds that Huawei shipped 33.6 million smartphones in third quarter, with a 9 percent market share globally making it third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.
Apple bagged the second spot with 45.5 million devices, with a 12 percent global market share. Samsung was at the top with 75.3 million devices shipped along with a global market share of 20.1 percent.
“We are going to take them (Apple) step-by-step, innovation-by-innovation. There will be more opportunities. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality. It is like driving a car. At every curve or turn, there is an opportunity to overtake the competition,” further adds Yung.
Yu further expects that Huawei’s newly launched Mate 9 will be rather popular in European markets such as Great Britain, France and Germany. He also revealed that Huawei is ‘already number one’ in Finland.
“Step-by-step we are winning the trust and loyalty of the customers. It is about trust and loyalty,” said Yu.
With Samsung still recuperating from Galaxy Note 7 debacle and Apple’s lack of inventiveness and product transformation, Yu said it could be an opportunity for Huawei to shake things up significantly.
