Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei, which unveiled its latest high-end model P8 last week in London, has projected its sales at 100 million units with revenues of US$16 billion this year, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Commercial Times.
Huawei made great progress on its products and raising brand awareness last year, but the company aims more at profitability than sales numbers, said rotating CEO Eric Xu, at Huawei’s annual global analyst summit in Shenzhen on April 21.
Huawei Group reported revenues of US$46.5 billion last year while its smartphone division Huawei Device brought in US$12.2 billion with a growth rate of 32.6%, far exceeding the parent company’s 20%.
The company shipped out 52 million smartphones in 2013 and 75 million in 2014, a growth of 44%. Yet the company’s growth in revenues was less than 30%, which resulted in a low profit rate over past three years.
After the company launched its large-screen high-end model Ascend Mate 7 in September last year, it quickly sold more than 4 million units over the next six months. This was Huawei’s first model pricing higher than 3,000 yuan (US$484) to sell over 1 million units.
If Huawei could succeed in turning its brand image from low to middle and high-end smartphones, the profit rates will turn positive as well, said Xu.
Huawei Device president Yu Chengdong said the company targets smartphone shipments of 100 million this year, a 33% growth from last year while aiming for revenues of US$16 billion, a 31% growth.
