China's smartphone market has saturated, as evidenced by its languid performance in the first quarter, with sales dropping 3.5% sequentially, or 2.5% year-on-year, to 97 million units, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a Taipei-based ICT research institute.
MIC also noyed that in the second quarter of 2015, Huawei had the best performance and garnered 15% market share, with sales soaring 69% year-on-year to US$9.09 billion in the first half.
"Huawei's extraordinary performance is attributed to its distinct product strategy, through which Huawei-branded models are to target the high-end sector and Honor-branded models the mass sector with an aim to increase market presence," says Edward Lin, senior industry analyst with MIC.
"Over the past four years, the company has succeeded in switching from a value-line to higher-end or luxury brand. For instance, the Huawei Mate S, its most expensive flagship model up to now, was debuted at IFA 2015."
While many put Huawei on a par with Xiaomi in the mobile-phone sector, Huawei has taken aim at to compete with international rivals Samsung and Apple, in the hope of being the largest Android smartphone brand in China and ultimately overtaking Apple in 2018.
To achieve the goal, Huawei is set to boost its competitiveness by improving its sales channels and adjusting its pricing strategy.
