Huawei increases smartphone shipment forecast for 2011

Huawei is aiming to ship up to 20 million smartphones this year, an increase on earlier sales targets of 12-15 million units in 2011. Last year, it shipped 3.3 million smartphones.

“Our original target this year was at 12-15 million units globally,” Victor Xu, chief strategy and marketing officer of Huawei Device, told Reuters on the sidelines of a company event.

“Currently, based on the sales in the first half of this year, sales in the domestic market might have already exceeded this figure. Therefore, we think probably that could be around 20 million units globally.”

The company is looking for total mobile phone sales of 60 million this year.

Huawei has previously said that it will launch 8-10 new smartphone models in 2011, with 80% being of entry- to mid-levels, and aims to be among the world’s five largest handset vendors in 2013.

Sales under the Huawei brand will start later this year in the UK and China, supported by an advertising campaign that will spread to the USA, Japan, India and Indonesian markets in 2012.