London – Huawei on Wednesday unveiled its latest flagship handset – the P9 – as it seeks to unseat Samsung and Apple as the top smartphone maker in the world.
At an event in London’s Batersea Evolution , the company showed off the phone, which boasts what it claims is the world’s first Leica dual-camera smartphone.
Huawei has been seeking to take on the top smartphone makers for some time. The Chinese company, which has a presence in SA through its enterprise offering, has been known for its low-cost devices.
However, the P9 seeks to compete head-on with Samsung and Apple’s flagship devices.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, speaking at the launch, said the company – which launched the P8 a year ago, wanted to take the smartphone to a new level, which is why it partnered with Leica. He announced the launch of a 5.2 inch phone, the P9, and the 5.5 inch P9 Plus.
The phone’s case, which is fully metal, blends with the glass to give users what Yu say is a comfortable experience.
“Huawei is excited to give P9 users the best smartphone photography experience by leveraging the unrivalled capabilities of Leica, the leader in the world of imaging for more than 100 years,” says Yu.
“Consumers around the world use their smartphones to take billions of pictures each year, making photography critical to user experience. P9 users can now capture images with unmatched clarity, richness and authenticity, with a delightfully-designed and powerful smartphone that looks and feels incredible.”
Yu says the handset has more vivid colours and will work better in low light, and boasts a resolution that is higher than the eye can identify.
He adds the handset is slimar than its counterparts from Apple and Samsung, but boasts a battery with a capacity twice that of other players in the sector. Battery life has long been a bone of contention for smartphone users, and the company that wins that race will be a consumer champion.
Global players
IDC’s latest research, published in January, shows that Samsung is the world’s leading smartphone vendor, with 21.4 percent of the global market. That Android-running handset is followed by Apple, its popular iPhone, which has 18.7 percent of the market, having shipped 74.8 million units in the last quarter of 2015.
In a statement released in January, IDC says global smartphone shipments reached a record in the last quarter of last year thanks to a strong holiday quarter.
Huawei was the biggest winner in the quarter, with the strongest year-over-year growth among the top five vendors at 37 percent, says IDC. It adds Huawei also became the fourth mobile phone vendor in history to ship over 100 million smartphones in a year (preceded only by Nokia, Samsung and Apple).
The IDC adds, of the key brands originating from China, Huawei has consistently expanded its presence and share on the back of affordable handsets in emerging markets, combined with increasingly competitive flagship models.
Record sales
Data from the IDC’sWorldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows smartphone vendors shipped a total of 399.5 million units during the fourth quarter of 2015 – 5.7 percent more than the last quarter of 2014.
For the full year, the worldwide smartphone market saw a total of 1432.9 million units shipped, marking the highest year of shipments on record, up 10.1 percent from the 1301.7 million units shipped in 2014.
“Usually the conversation in the smartphone market revolves around Samsung and Apple, but Huawei's strong showing for both the quarter and the year speak to how much it has grown as an international brand,” said Melissa Chau, senior research manager with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
Huawei Technologies, headquartered in Shenzhen, is – according to Wikipedia – the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world. It was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in the People's Liberation Army.
The company started making phone switches, but now also builds telecommunications networks; providing operational and consulting services and equipment to enterprises inside and outside of China; and manufacturing communications devices for the consumer market.
Wikipedia notes it has more than 170 000 employees and its bottom line was $5.5 billion in 2014. Its products and services have been deployed in more than 140 countries and it currently serves 45 of the world's 50 largest telecoms operators.
Chau notes, “while there is a lot of uncertainty around the economic slowdown in China, Huawei is one of the few brands from China that has successfully diversified worldwide, with almost half of its shipments going outside of China. Huawei is poised to be in a good position to hold onto a strong number 3 over the next year.”
Yet, Apple continued to dominate headlines in the quarter as the last quarter of 2015 represented its most successful quarter yet with 74.8 million units shipped, up 1 percent from the 74.5 million shipped in 2014. Although the Cupertino-based vendor witnessed minimal growth year over year, its 2015 total market share climbed to 16.2 percent, up from 14.8 percent in 2014, says IDC.
Growth in key markets such as China was up 18 percent of which half were first-time iPhone owners. Sales in many emerging markets were also up as India saw the biggest increase among the BRIC countries with 76 percent growth. Apple accomplished all this despite the increase in average selling price (ASP) for an iPhone. ASPs climbed to $691, up from $687 one year ago, potentially pointing to increased demand for a larger screen and higher capacity models, the IDC adds.
Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, notes, “to combat Apple at the high-end, competing vendors will need to bring value to consumers to stay relevant in the market.”
He adds: “With heavy saturation in many mature smartphone markets such as the US, Europe, and China, many vendors have placed a renewed focus on pushing premium-looking mid-tier devices as a new value proposition to consumers in both developed and emerging markets. Samsung has found success in this segment with its A-Series, and Huawei with its Honor brand. We expect similar devices to appear in 2016 from a variety of vendors that will focus on affordable value without neglecting performance and aesthetics.”
* Nicola Mawson is in London courtesy of Huawei.
IOL