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Huawei says it'll need more time to become world's biggest phone seller

It previously aimed to take Samsung's title by the end of 2019.

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Huawei's sold millions of phones like the P30, but it tempered expectations that it'll overtake Samsung to become the world's biggest vendor in 2019.

Angela Lang/CNET

Huawei is reportedly giving itself more time to overtake Samsung as the world's biggest phone-seller.

The scandal-scarred Chinese company took the No. 2 spot from Apple in the second quarter of 2018, and CEO Richard Yu previously said it aimed to become the world's largest phone vendor by the end of 2019.

Its chief strategy officer revised that goal in a speech Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Asia, according to Reuters.

"We would have become the largest in the fourth quarter [of this year] but now we feel that this process may take longer," Shao Yang said in Shanghai.

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He noted that Huawei is selling 500,000 to 600,000 smartphones a day. The company is likely tempering expectations for 2019 after President Donald Trump in May signed an executive order effectively banning Huawei from US communications networks, due to national security concerns about Huawei's close relationship with the Chinese government.

The US also urged its allies not to do business with Huawei despite the company's consistent denials that its products are used for spying. Last week, its chairman said that Huawei is willing to sign a "no spy agreement" with the US.

Huawei didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

First published at 4:48 a.m. PT.
Updated at 5:35 a.m. PT: Adds more detail.

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