Huawei classes up their game for 2016 with posh new device portfolio
While the premium market segment for devices used to be primarily dominated in recent years by either Apple or Samsung, Huawei has made inroads towards that exclusive slice of the pie, taking great pains to class up their range of devices with a gradual, steady increase in build quality and features for their Mate series while spinning off the mass market segment to their Honor brand and it seems their efforts are bearing fruit.
According to GFK, Huawei was one of the world’s top three smartphone makers with a global market share of 9.9% as of November 2015 with over 100 million smartphones shipped last year, a jump up of 44% from 2014. The latest fruit of their efforts at dominating the premium segment arrived in Malaysia yesterday in the form of a grand launch of their premium Mate 8 phone, their swankiest offering for the year.
Grand was an understatement with Huawei’s most recent event yesterday as every single aspect of the event exuded the word posh. The impressive guest list included worthies and the who’s who on Malaysia’s entrepreneur scene while the festivities surrounding the launch approached something that you’d usually associate with either a national holiday or, in this case, the official Malaysia launch for their Mate 8 phone. The launch took place at one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in town – the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and saw Huawei taking up a huge swath of the upper floors with a mammoth hall made to fit over a thousand guests filled to capacity.
With the sort of pomp and grandeur that’s fast becoming their calling card, Huawei Director of Product Marketing South Pacific Region, Luke Au took to the stage to showcase their recent performance figures in broad strokes backlit by a wall to wall bank of massive displays. The figures were compelling as Huawei shared that they were globally on a fast track up, ranking 13th on Fast Company’s Annual List of the Worlds 50 Most Innovative Companies. Huawei has also been ranked last year in October 2015 as 88th in Interbrand’s Top 100 Best Global Brand List for 2015.
Huawei opened up a hall for guests and dealers to experience the new Mate 8, the new Huawei Watches and the new MediaPad M2 10.0.
Luke also highlighted the performance of the Mate 8 when it made its debut in China last year. A whopping two million Mate 8 phones were sold in the first 50 days since its initial launch in China and he expressed confidence that it will achieve a similar level of performance in Malaysia.
“A whopping two million Mate 8 phones were sold in the first 50 days since its initial launch in China.” Luke Au, Huawei Director of Product Marketing South Pacific Region
He also showcased the other new devices in Huawei’s premium product portfolio for Malaysia. Two new Huawei Watch smart wearables, both of which resemble bespoke traditional timepieces and one embellished with Swarovski crystals, made their debut onstage along with a high-end MediaPad M2 10.0 tablet.
To wrap up the proceedings, Huawei also invited several guests on stage including ChaTime magnate Bryan Loo, master shoe craftsman to the stars Datuk Professor Jimmy Choo and celebrities like Atitah Haris who all joined senior Huawei management onstage to indulge in that obligatory act of post-modern humanity – the selfie. HC
