While Huawei executives in Australia were last week spruiking their new P9 smartphone to a select group of journalists, executives in China were dramatically cutting back overall Huawei smartphone targets due to falling sales of their Android smartphones.
The Chinese Company whose sales numbers in Australia have been challenged by competitors after the Company pulled out of supplying sales data to IDC who independently monitor smartphone sales, has admitted that demand for Huawei branded smartphones “is slowing”.
In Australia Alcatel is the #1 Chinese brand, they sit behind Apple and Samsung in overall volume according to IDC.
Huawei executives last week told downstream suppliers in Taiwan to reduce their inventories of parts and components for the third quarter as the Company was reducing their shipment targets for the quarter by 10-20%, respectively, said the sources.
Huawei initially aimed to ship 14-15 million Huawei P9 devices during the same period.
Instead the Company has lowered its smartphone shipment target for 2016 to 120 million units from 140 million set previously, the sources noted.
The reduced shipment target means that Huawei now expects its smartphone shipments to grow only 13% on year in 2016 compared to a 30% growth it estimated previously.
The Company has also been selective with which journalists review their products for fear of generating a negative review that according to one former employee “Would not go down well in China”.
The DigiTimes a leading trade magazine in Taiwan said recently that despite “brisk sales “of its P9 and P9 Plus smartphones, Huawei has been forced to lower its shipments target for 2016 as overall sales of high-end models so far have been lower than expected.
