Chinese handset maker Huawei plans to introduce a new smartphone in the middle of this year, packed with the "best hardware and design," and is preparing to open a slew of new stores in its home market.
The upcoming handset was mentioned Tuesday when a Huawei official offered the company's road map to become a leading smartphone vendor. This year, the Chinese tech firm wants to raise the bar in the mobile phone market, with new devices featuring top-of-the-line specifications, said Shao Yang, Huawei chief marketing officer for its devices group.
"We need to have the best hardware and design," he said speaking to reporters. "And with the next product we will try to achieve this."
In last year's fourth quarter, Huawei grabbed the third spot for world's largest smartphone vendor with a 4.9% market share, according to research firm IDC. This marked a major change for a company that once mainly built unbranded feature phones for the world's telecom carriers.
Last year, 90% of the company's consumer devices were sold under Huawei's brand name, Shao said. In addition, the company shipped 32 million smartphones, which made up 60% of its total handset shipments in 2012.
But despite the progress, Huawei's handset business and brand recognition still remains far behind Apple and Samsung, which each had more than 20% market share in last year's fourth quarter.
"The big doubt is not from the products, but from the brand," Shao said. "How can people know Huawei? What does Huawei mean? And how can this connect to people? This is an issue for Huawei's brand."
The company, however, has set an ambitious target to ship 60 million smartphones in 2013, or almost double the number from last year. To reach that goal, the company is focusing on the handset markets of China, western Europe and Japan, Shao said.
In China, its main market for its phones, Huawei will establish 100 franchise outlets in the country. The company also recently launched a new branding strategy, revolving around the "Make It Possible" tagline, that it plans to support through advertising and sponsorship from partners.
As part of the company's road map, this year Huawei intends to improve the hardware of its smartphones, including their displays, processors and build materials. But from 2014 to 2015, the company will shift gears and devote greater attention to smartphone software, including improving its "Emotion UI", a Huawei developed Android skin.
Earlier this year, Huawei launched its flagship Ascend D2 smartphone, along with a 6.1-inch handset called the Ascend Mate. The company has also unveiled its Ascend P2 smartphone, which boasts download speeds of up to 150Mbps.
