Huawei ships 27.4 million smartphones units in Q3 2015

NEW DELHI: Reporting steady growth in smartphone shipments, Huawei Consumer Business Group (BG) has announced its performance results for the third quarter of 2015. Mid-to-high-end devices accounted for 33 percent of those shipments – up seven-percentage-points over the previous quarter.

The earnings report by Huawei indicates that the total smartphone shipped by for the three months that ended September 30, 2015 reached 27.4 million units, representing a year-on-year increase of 63 percent. Industry-wide smartphone shipments for 2015 meanwhile are expected to grow by just 9.3 percent year-on-year.

“This quarter’s results clearly showcase the continued success of our growth strategy,” said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer BG. “We are especially proud of the stellar growth we’ve seen outside of China and the increased demand for our mid-to-high end devices. “At this rate, we are confident in our ability to reach our smartphone shipment target of 100 million units by year’s end.”

Huawei’s smartphone shipments to Europe and the Middle-East-and-Africa regions grew by 98 and 70 percent respectively year-on-year. The division has seen considerable success at home during the quarter, reporting a year-on-year shipment increase of 81 percent.

Specific results for Huawei’s mid-to-high-end smartphones, which include any device that retails for more than RMB 2,000, point to growing interest such products. Since their launches, shipments for the company’s flagship Mate 7, P7 and P8 devices have reached 6.5-, 7.5- and 4-million units respectively. Huawei Mate S, the latest flagship that the company has launched in September this year, has gradually become available in over 48 countries globally including China, UK, Germany, France, Spain etc. The launch of the Rose Gold version of Mate S allows Huawei Consumer BG to further consolidate its brand awareness and recognition among female consumer globally.

Demand for mid-to-high-end Huawei smartphones is especially strong in Europe, where the company’s devices account now for 12.4 percent of the overall smartphone market in Spain, and 45.7 percent of the country’s high-end 400-500-euro-device market. Huawei has also enjoyed considerable success in Italy where it maintains 10.9 percent of the overall market and 27.9 percent of the high-end market.

As for Huawei’s global strength, a recent report from GfK indicated that the company has managed to keep itself among the world’s leading three smartphones makers for the January to August–period this year with a market share of 9.5 percent. At home, Huawei continues to lead the China market as of September 2015 with a market share of 15.2 percent. Huawei is also among the top three smartphone makers in Australia, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and New Zealand.

In October 2015, Huawei was included in Interbrand’s Top 100 Best Global Brand list for 2015, on which it is ranked 88th. The ranking comes on the back of the company’s proud of achievement of becoming the first mainland Chinese brand to be included in the list the year before.