Huawei launches a new affordable smartphone Honor 4C with 5 inch display
The launch of Honor 4C smartphone by Huawei Technologies is the latest attempt made by the Chinese technology firm to secure market share in the highly competitive budget handset segment from domestic rivals such as Xiaomi Inc.
The phone has a 5-inch screen display, which is slightly larger than the iPhone 6 and the same as Xiaomi’s Mi 4 smartphone. It starts at 799 yuan ($129), while the iPhone 6 starts at around $750 and the Mi 4 costs around $250.
George Zhao, Huawei’s marketing director told the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing that Honor 4C smartphone will be mostly sold online through outlets including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Tmall, in order to reduce the marketing costs.
Jeff Zhang, Vice President of Zhao and Alibaba also said that the smartphone launch coincided with a “new level” of corporate ties between their two companies. They however refused to give any details.
Honor, which was formed by Huawei less than two years ago as a largely independent unit, has since launched several budget smartphones which, like Xiaomi, have been sold almost exclusively online.
Huawei stated that it had sold 20 million Honor handsets last year, which was nearly a third of the 60 million handsets Xiaomi had sold during the same period.
According to the research group, Gartner, Huawei is one of the world’s largest producer of telecoms network equipment and was ranked fourth in the global smartphone sales last year. It had shipped 68 million units, which gave it a 5.5 percent sale share in the market.
