China's Huawei Unveils Planned Ad Blitz, New Windows 8 Phone Product Lines
Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies announced on Thursday plans to ramp up its smartphone production for the current year, indicating that up to 60 million Huawei smartphones will be shipped to destinations around the world by the end of 2012.
The target is projected to increase the gadget maker's annual smartphone output by 200 percent following the total 20 million units it delivered to the global market last year.
Already, Huawei is regarded as the sixth largest mobile phone producer in the world and has flourished since its founding in 1987 to become the number two tech firm in China.
In an interview with Reuters, Huawei Device chief Shao Yang said that his division is all geared up to embark on a global campaign that will promote smartphones and tablets emblazoned with the Huawei brand.
While being around for quite some time now, Ms Shao admitted that Huawei products have yet to achieve the popularity being enjoyed by its competitors, both in the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of other key markets around the world.
Other brands from the region, like Sony and Samsung, have emerged as industry giants with the latter enjoying the distinction as the only viable threats to Apple's worldwide dominance.
Samsung's Galaxy lines of tablets and smartphones have been giving Apple's iPads and iPhones quite good runs in the past quarters, with the South Korean's smartphones taking away the American firm's crown during first quarter this year.
Armed with an advertising war-chest of $US200 million, Mr Shao said Huawei is poised to replicate its rivals past gains and mix it up in the fierce smartphone competition that hopefully will lead to more people outside of China discovering the company brand.
He added that Huawei is also set to open up its eyes and ears in order to learn more on the trends currently preferred by global consumers.
"We need to learn how to get close to people and understand people," the Huawei executive told Reuters on Thursday.
Part of Huawei's big plan is to introduce high-end smartphones that Mr Shao said will hold a candle against the bestselling handsets now on the catalogue of Apple, Samsung, Nokia, HTC and other manufacturers all competing to grab the lead in the increasingly lucrative mobile device market.
On that end, Mr Shao said that Huawei will partner with Microsoft in manufacturing smartphones that will be powered by the upcoming Windows 8, which the software maker said on Wednesday will hit the international market October this year.
Huawei issued its notice as Google said in a report that the Asia-Pacific region is projected to surpassed the United States in smartphone penetration rate and by 2015 50 percent of those in the region will connect on the web using their mobile handsets.
The prime markets in the region would be Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea - the same markets that Huawei would want to encroach into, according to Aliza Knox, Google Asia Pacific's managing director for commerce.
"Asia has an insatiable appetite for mobile ... and is taking this up faster than other places," Ms Knox was reported by Agence France Presse (AFP) as saying.