Chinese tech company Huawei is now eyeing smartphone supremacy for 2019 after hitting its highest recorded sales in 2018.
The company said on Thursday that it can become the “world’s biggest-selling smartphone vendor” of 2019, despite performances in the US market and the global scrutiny that it’s currently going through. This prediction contrasts those of Samsung and Apple, both of which have announced weakening sales in the Chinese market. Currently, China is the largest smartphone market in the world, but its economic growth has been at its lowest in nearly 30 years.
Huawei has come under fire recently for several controversies. One is the US and its allies alleging that Huawei’s products can be used by China for espionage. Understandably, the Chinese company has denied this claim. Another one is Huawei’s CFO getting arrested in Canada due to some sanction violations in the US. Huawei has also denied this.
Despite that, Huawei keeps an optimistic forecast for 2019. Huawei’s consumer division chief Richard Yu said, “Even without the US market we will be number one in the world. I believe at the earliest this year, and next year at the latest.”
Huawei’s smartphone division shipped 208 million devices last year, even though worldwide smartphone shipments fell by around 3%.
