Huawei revenue rises 35% on strong smartphone sales

Huawei's full-year revenue for 2015 surged to 390 billion yuan (£40.5bn, €55bn, $60bn), marking a 35.3% increase over 2014, thanks to strong smartphone sales. In an open letter to the staff, Guo Ping, Huawei's chief executive officer, spoke about the "solid increase in profit and cash flow". The strong sales came despite China's saturated smartphone market.

Guo said Huawei would be investing about 110 billion yuan (£11.4bn, €15.5bn, $17bn), of which 50 billion yuan (£5.1bn, €7bn, $7.6bn) would be for research and development. Another 60 billion yuan would go towards sales, marketing and services, reports the Wall Street Journal.

According to IDC, Huawei was the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the second quarter of 2015, with an increase in market share from 4.3% in 2014 to 6.9% in 2015. Samsung, the world's No 1 smartphone vendor, saw a drop in share to 25% from 32%, whereas Apple was at 12%, a slight fall from 13%.

Huawei's shipments for the same quarter rose to 95%, which marked the fastest growth among the rivals. Samsung's shipments, in contrast, dropped 3.9%, with analysts claiming Huawei is a threat to Samsung more than Apple. This is because a majority of smartphones from both the manufacturers use the Android platform while catering to different segments of the market.

With China's smartphone market saturated, Huawei appears to be rapidly growing its overseas markets such as Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. A key reason for this is its close relationship with mobile carriers around the globe.

According to data compiled by analysts at Kantar Worldpanel, Huawei is the second most popular Android smartphone brand in Europe, behind Samsung. Its Honor series handsets have surged from the sixth to the second position within a span of just 12 months.