Huawei’s smartphone shipments rose 26% year-on-year in the 2014 third quarter as the Chinese manufacturer continues to shift its focus to premium mid-to-high-end products.Huawei shipped a total of 32.03 million devices during the quarter, including 16.8 million smartphones, with the percentage of mid-to-high-end devices growing 162% year-on-year and comprising 26% of total shipments.
Huawei stated the shift in focus has in turn seen a surge in the sales of flagship products.
As of September 2014, Huawei Ascend P7 global shipments had passed three million units, with the smartphone now available in over 110 countries and markets globally.
Meanwhile, the Huawei Ascend Mate7, launched globally on September 4, sold out across more than 1,000 retail outlets in China on its first day of commercial availability.
“Our performance in this quarter demonstrates the ongoing success of our strategy to deliver the best premium handset devices to more people around the world,” commented Shao Yang, Huawei Consumer BG vice president of marketing.
“Our production capacity for Ascend Mate7 and P7 is growing steadily, and we expect shipments of our mid-to-high-end devices to continue to increase in Q4 2014.”
4G LTE-enabled smartphones, such as the Ascend P7, Ascend G6 and G750, continued to rise, comprising more than 34% of total shipments for the quarter.
The quarter saw Huawei record strong growth in the Middle East and Africa (322%), Asia Pacific (98%) and Latin America (51%), with Huawei stating it has continued to intensify its efforts across emerging markets on the back of rapid growth in demand for smartphones throughout the year.
This month Huawei became the first Chinese company to make brand consultancy Interbrand’s Best Global Brands ranking list, coming in at 94 with a brand value of US$4.31 billion.
