Huawei shoots for 15% of the Thai smartphone market in 2017
Huawei says it aiming to control 15 per cent of the smartphone market in Thailand by next year.
The Chinese company says it will also continue to invest in Thailand and will officially introduce a new Thai executive to take care of this market.
Globally, the company reported revenue growth of 8.5 per cent in the first quarter.
Thomas Liu, president for Southeast Asia of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said the company aimed for a 15-per-cent share of Thailand’s smartphone market in 2017, from just 2 per cent last year.
Year on year, Huawei’s share of the global smartphone market increased by 62 per cent in the first quarter.
“We will continue [to] invest in Thailand in terms of marketing and business channels and will officially announce an online channel for Huawei P9 and P9 Plus as well as [promote] Tossaporn Nisthanon to Huawei county director to take care [of the] Thai market next week,” Liu said.
He said the company entered the Thai market five years ago and had grown ever since.
Huawei has invested around US$600 million (more than Bt21 billion) in Thailand during the five year it has been doing business here.
It says it will be the first brand in Thailand to offer countrywide delivery of its products within just five days of purchase.
The Huawei P9 is a dual-lens-camera smartphone. The Huawei P9 Plus features a 5.5-inch display within a metal uni-body. The two new smartphones were launched in the global market in April and will available in Thailand next week.
In the pipeline for the Thai market are the Huawei Watch and Huawei MateBook.
“Huawei has strategic plans to accelerate the growth of the smartphone business in Southeast Asia,” Liu said.
He said the company had invested around $37 billion in research and development, 10 per cent of it global annual revenue, over the past 10 years.
“We will focus on developing cutting-edge technology to deliver a [better] user experience to customers worldwide through smartphones packed with a number of innovations.”
International Data Corporation has presented an updated five-year forecast for smartphone shipments worldwide by device vendors. IDC says 1.5 billion smartphones will be shipped this year, up 5.7 per cent from the 1.4 billion units shipped in 2015.
From there, shipments will reach 1.92 billion units in 2020, the final year of the forecast period, resulting in a compound annual growth rate of 6.0 per cent.
