Huawei looks afresh at low-end smartphone market

TECH

Huawei looks afresh at low-end smartphone market

2018-01-04 10:50 Last Updated At：16:52

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has called for a greater focus on low-end smartphones, marking the latest move to better tap into the global market.

Huawei's President Ren Zhengfei had earlier said in an internal meeting that he would like to see a focus towards low-end smartphones in the future to cover the larger user base, the company said on Tuesday.

"It is important to use low-priced products to defend our high-end smartphone market to make more profits. Low-end smartphones meet the needs of the general public, accounting for 95 percent of the total consumers in the world," Ren said.

Ren noted that unlike the high-end Huawei-branded smartphones, the firm's low-priced smartphone brand Honor particularly targeted the younger consumers. In the future, Huawei will take the asset-light approach to support Honor's overseas development.

It signals Huawei's latest push to compete with key rivals like Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in the global smartphone market.

Jia Mo, an analyst at market research firm Canalys, said with China's smartphone market saturating gradually and likely to shrink before the 5G era, smartphone vendors need to seek new momentum in the overseas market.

"Currently Huawei lacks the ability to challenge Apple and Samsung in the high-end smartphone market and the focus on low and middle-end market has become one of the firm's key strategies in 2018 to maintain growth."

"In the future, Huawei must utilize its channel advantages to compete with other counterparts in the overseas market," Jia added. "As the low-end markets have lower profit margins, Huawei cannot afford to have high marketing costs. The challenge will be how to develop a more localized strategy."

The strategy came shortly after Honor said last month it aimed to become one of the world's top five smartphone brands in three years.

Zhao Ming, president of Honor, said the firm will invest more resources to target the United States and Europe, with the aim of increasing Honor's overseas market share from 15 percent in its product sales to 50 percent by 2020.

Huawei said it shipped 153 million smartphones in 2017, up by 10 percent from the previous year. Buoyed by the dual-brand strategy, the company also saw its global market share hit 10 percent, consolidating its position as the world's third-largest smartphone manufacturer after Apple and Samsung.

According to statistics from Sino Market Research, Honor accounted for 14.5 percent of the Chinese smartphone market in November last year, taking the top spot in the Android smartphone segment.

"Due to Honor's good performance, it has received more resources. I believe it has the potential to become a main force in overseas markets like Southeast Asia and India," Jia added.

Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher after another set of Wall St records

2024-03-29 17:16 Last Updated At：17:50

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares ended mostly higher in quiet, Good Friday holiday trading, while European and U.S. markets were closed.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.5% to 40,369.44 and the Kospi in Seoul was little changed, at 2,748.55. The Shanghai Composite index gained 1% to 3,041.17.

Taiwan's Taiex advanced 0.7%. In Bangkok, the SET added 0.5%.

India’s markets were closed for Holi.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 151.35 Japanese yen from 151.38 yen. The euro edged lower, to $1.0774 from $1.0790.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 added 0.1%, to its all-time high set a day before and closed at 5,254.35. It gained 10.2% in the first quarter.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.1% to 39,807.37 and likewise set a record. The Nasdaq composite dipped 0.1% to 16,379.46.

Chemours fell 9.1% despite reporting better results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It gave a forecast for earnings before taxes and other items in the current quarter that was below analysts’ expectations.

Also on the losing end was Trump Media & Technology Group. The company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social fell 6.4% after soaring more than 14% in each of the past two days. Its stock has shot well beyond what critics say is reasonable for the money-losing company, driven by fans of Trump and investors hoping to cash in on the mania.

The U.S. stock market has been on a nearly unstoppable run since late October, and the S&P 500 just capped its fifth straight winning month. It has leaped as the U.S. economy has remained remarkably solid despite high interest rates meant to get inflation under control.

And with inflation hopefully still cooling from its peak, the Federal Reserve has indicated it will likely cut interest rates several times later this year.

The U.S. economy’s growth in the final three months of last year was stronger than earlier estimated and another report said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, in the latest indications of resilience.

The hope on Wall Street is still that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting its main interest rate in June. Lower interest rates ease the pressure on the economy, while boosting prices for investments. But progress on bringing inflation down has become bumpier recently, with reports this year coming in hotter than expected.

Analysts said investors are ready to pounce on signs of a recovery in the housing market, with interest and mortgage rates expected to come down later this year.

U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $1.82 to $83.17 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, surged $1.59 to $87.00 per barrel. Trading was closed Friday for the Good Friday holiday.