Honor, a smartphone sub-brand of Chinese networking equipment maker Huawei, is aiming to sell a million smartphones in the upcoming festive season this year.

Talking to BusinessLine , P Sanjeev, vice president-Sales at Huawei and Honor Consumer Business said that the continued partnership with online retailer Flipkart has helped the smartphone maker to increase its presence in India. This development comes in the backdrop of the Chinese company seizing the Number 2 spot from Apple globally, in terms of market share, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

At the end of second quarter of 2018, Huawei had a 15.9 per cent market share.

Two million units sold

In India, Sanjeev pointed out that the company is witnessing a similar surge in smartphone purchase and Huawei has already sold 2 million smartphones on Flipkart this year, priced from ₹6,999 onwards. A combination of factors have driven this adoption.

Ayyappan R, Director, Flipkart said that over the last few years, the company has been one of the preferred destinations to buy smartphones. “One in every smartphone bought is through Flipkart and it is our largest category,” he said.

Slow Chinese market

Another reason that most smartphone makers are bullish ahead of the festive season, is that the Chinese market is witnessing a slowdown of sorts. In August, according to preliminary data of the IDC Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the Chinese smartphone market shipped 105 million units during the second quarter of 2018, resulting in a 5.9 per cent year-over-year (YoY) decline.

However, the Indian market saw a shipment of 30 million units in the first quarter and a year-over-year growth of 11 per cent.

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