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Huawei sets new goals to overtake Samsung and Apple

The Chinese phone maker wants to become the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter
Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.
Marrian Zhou
2 min read
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Huawei is teaming up with its Honor smartphone sub-brand as part of new strategic goals.

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Huawei  has new goals for the company, namely world domination. 

"[Huawei] has arrived at a brand new stage," Huawei CEO Richard Yu said in a press release Wednesday. "Huawei and Honor are likely to become the world's largest smartphone manufacturer this year."

To achieve its top goal of becoming the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer, the Chinese smartphone giant has to come up with strategies to overtake Samsung and Apple , which are the first- and second-largest manufacturers in the world, according to IDC data.  

Huawei has knocked Apple off its second-place seat before. In the second quarter of 2018, Huawei became the second-largest manufacturer with 54 million shipped handsets in the quarter, even though Huawei's products aren't sold in the US. But Huawei hasn't been able to take down Samsung so far. In December, Huawei had set a record for itself with over 200 million smartphones shipped out in 2018, which was largely driven by the success of products like P20 , Honor 10 and Mate 20 series. 

The Chinese smartphone giant has been wrestling with accusations that it poses security risks to the US and other countries. Huawei in March sued the US government over a ban on its telecom equipment. The company is seeking a permanent injunction on the ban and a declaratory judgement that the ban is unconstitutional. 

In addition, Huawei will also boosted its Honor smartphone sub-brand, according to the release. Through a new dual-brand strategy, Huawei hopes Honor will become the second-largest smartphone manufacturer in China, and the fourth largest in the world.

First published April 3 at 10:22 a.m. PT.
Update 2:01 p.m. PT: Adds more information on Huawei's shipment of smartphones in 2018.
Update April 4 at 7:02 a.m. PT: Adds more background information on Huawei's lawsuit against the US government. 

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