Just like its Chinese counterpart, Xiaomi, Chinese Tech major Huawei is eyeing Indian market for expansion of its offline and online footprint. In addition to the planned launch of its flagship Mate 20 Pro smartphone, Huawei is planning to introduce new tablets and PCs in India. Huawei branded phones are eyeing a key proportion of total sales occurring in the budget phone segment. Huawei is also focussing on gaining a share in the overall sales recorded in the premium phones segment. The Chinese telecommunications giant has already partnered with Amazon and Flipkart for exclusive launches of its phones and tablets.
With 20 per cent overseas smartphones shipments (YoY), Huawei is one of the fastest-growing Chinese brands. In India, it has recorded more than 1.5 per cent market share in the second quarter this year.
Huawei is banking heavily on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is destined to change the smartphone experience for consumers. According to a Huawei spokesperson, AI gives the technological edge to all the Huawei devices, helping users to perform multiple tasks simultaneously including streamlined sharing of photos and files between devices.
When it comes to offline presence, Huawei is ramping up its operations in the major cities of India from Tier-1, Tier-2, and Tier-3 respectively. In a bid to boost its offline sales, Huawei is eyeing the major markets and targeting festive seasons for providing momentum to its sales.
In the second quarter of this year, Huawei emerged as the second-largest smartphone seller in the world after Samsung. As a brand, Huawei is prioritising nationwide promotions and region-specific promotions. For Kerala, it has launched campaigns for people celebrating Onam while for people in the eastern part of the country, marketing initiatives were adopted to promote Durga puja in parts of eastern India. This rapidly growing smartphone manufacturer plans to unleash a host of exclusive products, in various segments and categories.
In line with its India expansion, the smartphone launched a premium Mate series device for the first time in India by the name Mate 20 Pro smartphone.
Following the launch of Mate 20 Pro, Huawei is geared up for establishing its foothold in the offline retail segment and plans to bring about 100 exclusive experience zones through its retail partners by 2019. Wally Yang, Senior Product Marketing Director, Huawei Consumer Business Group, is delighted with the impressive performance of Huawei in the localised markets of India. The Mate 20 Pro became an Indianized model that is integrated with language localisation feature and ‘panchang’ calendar.
Huawei has already constructed their second largest R&D facility in India. Indian R&D engineers have contributed significantly towards the programming of Kirin 980 chipset and EMUI 9.0 OS. Huawei’s EMUI 9.0 OS includes India-centric features such as language support and successful integration of the Paytm app.