Dubai: Huawei’s Honor expects to sell around 2.25 million mobile phones in the Middle East this year compared to 1.5 million last year, registering a growth of 50 per cent.
“We may not be able to double our sales volume in the region but revenue will double as the average selling price of the device is going higher,” Chris Sun, vice-president of online sales at Huawei Middle East, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview.
The company achieved more than $150 million (Dh550.5 million) in revenue in the region last year and aiming to double its global sale volume to 80 million units and revenue to $12 billion (Dh44 billion) this year.
Huawei became the fourth smartphone vendor in history to ship over 100 million smartphones in a year (preceded only by Nokia, Samsung and Apple) to 108 million units in 2015.
“We see the current crises as the right opportunity for us to grow as people will prefer to buy mid-range devices rather than premium devices to save money,” Sun said.
According to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), the Middle East market fell 12.5 per cent in the first quarter.
Product quality
Despite the drop, Honor’s market share is growing globally and regionally.
Sun attributed it to product quality and user experience.
“The key concerns for the consumers are battery life, finger print and camera quality. The recognition from end users is continuing to grow. The repurchase and referral purchase of the brand is very high and is more than 95 per cent globally,” he said.
Saad Elkhadem, a research analyst for mobile phones at IDC, said that the challenging economic environment means that consumers are generally reluctant to spend more than is absolutely necessary on their mobile devices.
“As such, vendors are increasingly pushing their mid-range devices in an attempt to provide consumers with a good balance between value and features,” he said.
IDC stats show that the majority of shipments in the Gulf — almost 85 per cent — still come from low to mid-range models priced below $300.
Honor targets different models for different markets. Sun said that the taste and flavour is different for different regions. In this region, he said the demand is for bigger screens but in Europe, it is not.
“We don’t want to launch 10 or 20 models and confuse the buyers. We focus on the right product to the right users,” he said.
Different segments
Last year, the company launched three models and this year, it is expected to launch two models.
When asked whether the company can survive with two models, he said: “we can”.
“The reason for that is we want to be focused on digital natives and on the other hand Huawei is focusing on different segments,” he said.
The biggest markets for Honor are the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan.
Even though Huawei’s Honor started off as an online brand, majority of its sales in the Middle East now comes from offline.
When asked why, Sun said that many users in the region still like to touch and feel the product before buying.
“If we don’t provide the touch and feel factor, then its shows that we don’t care about the consumers,” he said.
In some markets like China, Honor sells its devices only online.
He said that online now contributes around 10 per cent to its sales while 90 per cent come from offline sales.