Eying the growing interest among Indians for fitness bands and smart watches, Huawei will launch its range of wearable products by early 2019. This would place the electronics giant in competition with its Chinese peer Xiaomi, which rules this segment in India.
“Huawei will not be limited to just smartphones in India. We will expand very soon into wearables like smart watch, etc. This will be launched early next year,” Huawei consumer business group (BG) president for the Middle East & Africa Gene Jiao told FE.
During the Mobile World Congress in March this year, Huawei Consumer BG CEO Richard Yu had said, “For consumers, having access and storage of personal data and records will make wearable devices one of the most important industry developments in the advent of big data and cloud technologies”.
Wearables include smart watches, fitness trackers, smart wristbands, activity trackers, sports watches, etc. In India, the market is at present in the range of 2-2.5 million annual shipments and are expected to cross 3 million by 2018-end.
According to IDC, the Indian wearables market grew 66% Y-o-Y and 40% sequentially during April-June 2018, making it the biggest quarter with one million units shipped during the period. At present, Xiaomi is the market leader, followed by GOQii, Titan, Fitbit and Lenovo.
Huawei, which toppled Apple to become the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor in April-June 2018, also bettered its performance in India in the last one year, as the company introduced a range of devices at various price points targeting youth.
IDC’s associate research manager Upasana Joshi in a recent report said Huawei’s has been able to better its performance in India aided by several handset launches across various price points and it should be seen as a serious long-term player to challenge Xiaomi and Samsung. The company with strong shipments of Honor-branded phones accounted for 8% market share in the online segment during April-June 2018.
On Huawei’s recent performance, Jiao said, “What we chase is how to enhance user experience. Our aim is not numbers, but the experience because that’s what makes us the brand of choice. This has helped us to become number two globally. Our recent performance in India is a testament to this philosophy”.
Jiao said that India is an important market, and the company will launch its flagship range Huawei Mate 20 series here next month. The ultra-premium segment range of devices were launched globally on Tuesday.
The series could see an exclusive launch on Amazon.
“After the Mate 20 launch in London, we are going to launch the device in India, which aptly underscores the importance India holds for us,” Jiao said.