Huawei launches affordable P8 smartphone

Chinese firm confident of achieving 20% growth in regional sales

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei has launched its P8 smartphone at an affordable price as the highend segment gets saturated.

Huawei is ranked second in the Middle East and Africa market with a market share of 8.9 per cent and fourth globally with a market share of 5.7 per cent in 2014, according to research firm International Data Corporation.

According to the research firm, the increased availability of cheaper mobile phones and dual-SIM devices in the Middle East and Africa has fuelled a year-on-year growth of 19.6 per cent in volume in 2014.

Nabila Popal, research manager for handsets and display solutions at International Data Corporation Middle East and Africa, said that Huawei has experienced a wave of growth in the mid- to low-end segment.

Ashraf Fawakherji, vicepresident of Huawei Device Middle East, told Gulf News that the company is confident of achieving around 20 per cent growth in regional sales this year.

There will be two versions of the P8. The first version with 16GB storage capacity is priced at Dh1,699 while the 32GB version is priced at Dh1899. The 32GB version will be available in the first week of June.

The 5.2-inch dual-SIM device is powered by homegrown 64-bit Kirin 930 octacore chipset that offers 2GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 and 1.5 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53.