Huawei eyes top three spot

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is likely to rise among the world's top five mobile phone vendors by shipment this year, one step further towards its five-year target of becoming a top three global manufacturer, according to a company executive.

Wan Biao, chief executive officer of Huawei Device Co Ltd, the mobile phone branch of Huawei Technologies, said Huawei maintains its goal, made at the beginning of the year, to ship 100 million mobile phones in 2012, including 60 million smartphones.

"We are confident of fulfilling our target and we will make every effort to achieve it during the remaining months," said Wan, on the sidelines of a Beijing forum on Wednesday.

There is a high probability that Huawei will become one of the top five global players in the handset market this year, if Huawei realizes its goal, Wan added. The company was the world's sixth-largest mobile phone vendor by shipment in 2011, according to research company IDC.

"Huawei also hopes to become the world's number one player in terms of hardware quality over the next three years," Wan added, including handset screen and camera capabilities.

Last year Huawei announced that it hoped to become one of the world's top three mobile phone vendors in three to five years.

Previously, He Shiyou, executive vice-president of ZTE Corporation, the world's fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer, said the firm's handset shipments this year would remain level with 2011. That would see ZTE ship around 66 million mobile phones over the course of 2012.

ZTE aims to ship 35 million smartphones this year, He added.