SHANGHAI • Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei yesterday said its revenue surged 30 per cent year on year in the first half, helped by "solid" sales of smartphones and growth in other business areas.

The world's fourth-biggest smartphone maker is also ahead of schedule on smartphone shipments and will meet its 2015 target of 100 million handsets before the end of the year, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.

Huawei shipped 75 million smartphones in 2014, below its original sales target of 80 million. The firm had a 5.4 per cent share of the global smartphone market in the first quarter of this year, a distant fourth behind Samsung, Apple and Lenovo, according to research firm Gartner.

International Data Corporation (IDC) said Apple was the top smartphone vendor in China during the first quarter this year, with a 14.7 per cent market share. Chinese upstart Xiaomi followed with 13.7 per cent and Huawei was third with 11.4 per cent, IDC said.

Huawei said in a statement that sales reached 175.9 billion yuan (S$38.8 billion) on an unaudited basis in the January-June period.

"Huawei's mid-range and high-end smartphones... have made solid progress, helping us guarantee quality and sustainable growth in the consumer business," chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou said.

Last year, the group's revenue rose 20.6 per cent from 2013 to 288.2 billion yuan. Net profit jumped 32.7 per cent year on year to 27.9 billion yuan for 2014.

Huawei is not listed on any stock exchange, but it releases financial information in the interest of transparency. REUTERS,

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE