source from：WSJ
TECH
Huawei Aims to Be World’s Second-Biggest Smartphone Maker by 2018
Company is now third, behind Samsung and Apple

Updated Sept. 1, 2016 8:27 a.m. ET
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BERLIN—Huawei Technologies Co. aims to become the world’s second-largest smartphone maker by 2018, Richard Yu, the chief executive of the company’s consumer business group, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview in Berlin on Thursday.

“This year and next will be critical for the success, we are working very hard,” Mr. Yu said. When the company is number two is the time to predict when it will become number one, he added.

Mr. Yu reiterated statements he made at last year’s IFA consumer trade fair in Berlin, that he is still aiming for Huawei to become the world’s largest smartphone maker “in four or five years from now.”

Despite a flattening overall market, Huawei is targeting huge growth. The company plans to ship 140 million devices in 2016, a 30% increase over the past year. Mr. Yu said he is convinced Huawei can achieve this target.

He said he also expects growth next year, but didn’t give specific numbers.

Huawei has been particularly successful in its home market of China, where it faces competition from other local companies like Oppo and Vivo.

“The competition in China is a concern to me, but not a big one,” Mr. Yu said. “We have the latest technology, and this is what people want.”

In the U.S., Huawei is still a runner-up. “I have to admit, that our management in the U.S. was too weak in the past, so we changed it,” Mr. Yu said.

He doesn’t expect fast success, however, noting, “It will take time to build trust in the U.S.”

At Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics trade fair Thursday, Huawei launched two new phones in the mid-priced segment. The new phones, which come in two different versions in some key markets in Europe and Asia, start at 445 dollars.

“We saw the need to strengthen the mid-size-segment“, Mr. Yu said.

Write to Archibald Preuschat at archibald.preuschat@wsj.com