Huawei looks to shake up smartphone industry with new launches

The company claims its new devices set a bar by which all 2018 devices will be measured

The world's second largest smartphone manufacturer Huawei unveiled its much-awaited Mate 20 Series in London on Tuesday, offering larger screens and better cameras.

“Smartphones are an important entrance to the digital world,” said Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei Consumer Business Group.

“The Huawei Mate 20 Series is designed to be the best ‘mate’ of consumers, accompanying and empowering them to enjoy a richer, more fulfilled life with their higher intelligence, unparalleled battery lives and powerful camera performance.”

Huawei generated 325.7 billion Chinese yuan (Dh173.2bn) in revenue globally in the first half of 2018, an increase of 15 per cent over the same period last year. The company's operating margin was 14 per cent during the first half of this year.

In the Mena region, the Chinese smartphone company's shipments grew 76 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2018, while revenue surged 100 per cent.

Designed with a the industry’s most powerful processor technology, the latest Huawei flagship devices set a new bar by which all 2018 smartphones will be measured, the company claims.

Available in 6.53-inch, 6.39-inch and 7.2-inch sizes, the Huawei Mate 20 Series has four devices: Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20 X and Mate 20 RS that cost between €799 and €2095.

The new Mate 20 Series, as well as the newly launched Huawei Watch GT and Band 3 Pro will go on sale in countries including the UK, France, Italy and the UAE. Huawei is expected to launch its products in Dubai on October 24.

Sales for Huawei overtook US smartphone giant Apple in the second quarter of 2018 to become the number two smartphone vendor by sales globally for the first time, just behind Korea’s Samsung, according to researcher International Data Corporation. Huawei accounted for 15.8 per cent of the market share ahead of Apple’s 12.1 per cent.

Huawei's consumer division, which houses its smartphones business, accounted for about a third of its total revenue 2017.

The company plans to bolster its retail network by adding another 10,000 retail stores and 700 experience stores around the world before the end of 2018.

Huawei Mate 10 Series set the trend for mobile artificial intelligence and strengthened the company’s position in the high-end market with global shipments of over 10 million units, while global shipments of the Huawei P20 Series surpassed 9 million units.

The phone maker's market share in the Middle East and Africa was 21 per cent, an increase of 31.25 per cent when compared with the brand’s market share in December 2017. Its market share across different countries in the MEA region exceeds 20 per cent, including Oman at 30 per cent, Saudi Arabia at 27 per cent, Iraq at 25 per cent and Egypt at 24 per cent, according to a May 2018 report by researcher GfK.

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