Huawei is poised to beat Apple as it shifts its marketing engine to penetrate the U.S. market, which it failed to do in previous years. Moreover, Huawei aims to be world's largest smartphone vendor by 2012 as it invests on hiring the right people using the right strategy.
Huawei has an impressive growth that set an industry trend with its ability to sell 33.6 million in the global market despite the measly performance of other rivals. By the first half of 2016, the Chinese vendor was able to boost its sales by 40 percent with an estimated 439 million units sold. Its shipments also rose by 25 percent or an equivalent of 61 million units, beating Xiaomi's foothold as China;s largest smartphone manufacturer.
Huawei CEO Richard Yu revealed that Huawei is aiming to be the top smartphone vendor by 2012 and top two in market share. Yu also revealed that they are now hiring the right people to correct the wrong strategy they followed in the last five years.
Despite Huawei's phenomenal growth, the Chinese giant has yet to penetrate the U.S. market held by Apple. By the third quarter of 2016, Huawei was only able to sell 153,000 handsets. They did not even make it to the top 10 smartphone makers in the country falling way behind other budget phone competitors like OnePlus and Blu.
Now, Huawei is re-thinking its strategy and make Yu's vision come to fruition. To start, Huawei has applied for loans from China in building networks in Latin America and Africa. The Chinese firm is also negotiating its proposed network equipment deals with major European carriers like Vodafone.
In the U.S., Huawei is already in talks with the "big four" carriers like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. The Chinese giant has also hired Michelle Xiong, who previously worked for Verizon as a wireless executive.
Yu has extensive experience in brokering deals with device makers that will aid in selling Huawei devices. She will also spearhead establishing links with best Buy and Walmart to have the unlocked Huawei range of products displayed on physical stores, Digital Trends reported.
Meanwhile, Huawei has already invested in local manufacturing in India, but has joined Samsung, Vivo, and Oppo in asking the Indian government to extend equal benefits it is considering to give to Apple, ET Telecom reported. Mobile phone makers have been enticed to invest in India as a manufacturing hub because of duty differential incentives and tax breaks under the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS).
