Huawei sets sights on younger market

Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies released its new Honor 9 phones in Shanghai on Monday, in the hope of attracting more young consumers.

The new phone features Huawei’s Kirin chip, with better photo quality and an improved acoustic experience. Priced at 2,299 yuan ($338), 2,699 yuan and 2,999 yuan respectively based on different storage, the phones will be put on sale officially on June 16. The phones will be available on major e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Tmall.

Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei Technologies targeting the younger generation who have grown up with the internet, supplementing the company’s premium P and Mate series phones.

Also released on Monday was a body-fat scale with a bluetooth connection priced at 199 yuan, a wristband priced at 229 yuan for the standard version and 269 yuan for the NFC version, and a portable air quality monitor priced at 599 yuan, and a headphone jointly developed with music company Monster.

According to technology market consultancy GfK, Honor shipped more than 10.5 million phones in the first three months of this year, outnumbering all other domestic phone brands such as Xiaomi and Meizu, as well as the international big names like Apple and Samsung.

Honor has tied in first place with Apple in terms of brand value, according to the latest survey conducted by global market consultancy Bain & Co.

Its parent company Huawei overtook all of its rivals and shipped the largest amount of mobile phones in the first quarter of this year, 20.8 million, up 25.5 percent year-on-year while the average market growth rate was 0.8 percent, according to market research firm IDC.