Apple isn’t the only company that shared financial numbers with the public this year (and, for what it’s worth, Apple’s numbers exceeded all expectations, materialising in a huge success represented by all-time high revenue); Microsoft has also shared their side of the story, and it was looking real good thanks to its Surface Pro 3 line-up. Now it’s time for Chinese giant Huawei to let us in on how the company is doing, and, judging by the official wording, it is not doing bad at all.
Despite leading the pack of Chinese smartphone-makers, Huawei is getting some real heat from local competitors like Xiaomi, but that didn’t stop the former from selling 75 million smartphones over the course of the the entire past year. While that number is indeed testifying to a successful 2014, it is slightly below what the company, as well as analysts, were expecting and forecasting. However, Huawei’s sales grew by 45 percent compared to the previous year. All these sales figures transform to around $12.2 billion generated from sales, which represent a solid growth of 30 percent compared to the year before, 2013.
Of course, comparing these yearly numbers to the huge quarterly figures reported by Apple makes them look really small in comparison, but the story here isn’t really the billions of dollars these companies make or leave on the table, but the growth that Huawei has managed to achieve compared to its own performance over the previous periods.
The fight for the third spot in 2015 is still open. Huawei needs to maintain its momentum and continue to drive growth through sales should the company want to secure its third spot, while competitors like Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, or LG (to name a few) represent a real threat on the market. So how will Huawei manage to achieve that? The company “will focus on flagship products brand marketing to establish Huawei’s brand image as a symbol of innovation and high-quality products through its high-end products”.
“Looking ahead, Huawei Consumer BG aims to sustain the growth momentum created in 2014 and further consolidate Huawei’s leading position in the mid- to high- end smartphone market with a 2015 shipment target of 100 million units”, said Mr. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer BG.