Huawei Hopes to Overtake Apple By 2018
China’s Huawei Technologies hopes to become the No. 2 smartphone maker in the world as early as 2018. In doing so, the company would overtake Apple, according to Reuters.
Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group, believes that in two years his company will produce more smartphones than Apple. His comments come as Huawei introduced the new Mate 9 smartphone, which features a new artificial intelligence feature.
On Apple, Yu notes, “We are going to take them (Apple) step-by-step, innovation-by-innovation.”
During the third quarter, Huawei shipped 33.6 million devices, compared to 45.5 million for Apple. Industry leader Samsung shipped 75.3 million devices over the same period.
The Mate 9 launches for $750. A version developed with Porsche Design will cost $1,550.
It’s entirely possible that Huawei will overtake Apple in 2018 in terms of market share. In terms of profits, probably not.
During the third quarter of 2016, Apple accounted for 104 percent of worldwide smartphone profits, according to Investor’s Business Daily. This compares to 0.9 percent for Samsung. LG and HTC were money losers, which is why Apple’s number exceeded 100 percent.
Huawei doesn’t break down the profits of its individual market segments.