'Cultural shift' fuels Huawei sales boom

Chinese vendor says consumer sales rose 70 per cent last year as it shipped 108 million smartphones

A boom in smartphone sales at Huawei has been chalked up by one commentator to a cultural shift at the Chinese vendor.

Huawei claims sales at its Consumer Business Group leapt by nearly 70 per cent last year to top £20bn as it shipped 108 million smartphones, up 44 per cent annually.

The Shenzhen-based firm also highlighted research from IPSOS that ranked it in first place in brand awareness growth. It found that 75 per cent of consumers are now aware of its smartphones.

Mark Skilton, professor of practice in the Information Systems & Management Group at Warwick Business School, said Huawei's headway was attributable to a "new way of thinking" at the vendor, which is banned from selling its networking equipment into the US and some other countries.

"Samsung's global mobile phone market share is 25 per cent, but that has been falling, while Apple has 11 per cent followed by Huawei at seven per cent in third, but it is catching up," he said.

"This has been due to a cultural shift made by the company towards what the CEO described last year in its European conference in Zurich as a new way of thinking. No longer is Huawei a telecoms network 'pipe', delivering in the main broadband. It sees itself as a digital business focused on customer service."

Huawei said the fact it invested 14.2 per cent of its annual revenues in R&D in 2014, while securing 76,687 patents, was behind its growth spurt.

"Huawei's outstanding business performance can be attributed to its tremendous investment in innovation and R&D," it said.

Huawei added that it had enjoyed "outstanding results" in the western European high-end smartphone market, ranking in the top three by market share in several countries including Spain, Italy and Belgium.