Huawei won the bronze award in the International Brand of the Year category, at the recently concluded SLIM Brand Excellence gala awards ceremony held at BMICH Colombo. Themed “Contender or Champ?” the awards ceremony recognised best brands in Sri Lanka and rewarded brand custodians with distinct appreciation to those organisations which deploy their resources for these brands.

The company’s strategic partnership with Singer has brought costeffective smartphones to a large segment of the Sri Lankan populace. Huawei elevated its position t o the number 2 position in the Lankan smartphone market together with the efforts of Singer Sri Lanka. Huawei chose Singer Sri Lanka as their Exclusive National Distributorin since mid 2012 to offer Huawei s martphones to t he fast-growing Sri Lankan smartphone market. Together, the two companies have been able to make significant strides in taking Huawei smartphone technology to the wider population.

Speaking about the accolade win, Thomas Liu - Managing Director of Huawei Device, Southeast Asia Region said, “Huawei has built a reputation as a company that achieves long-term goals while focusing on implementing a win-win approach when it comes to their local partners. Huawei was established over a decade ago to build strong relationships with these partners. He further added, “Singer’s position as the country’s No.1 brand and best in after sales service together with the widest network helps Huawei to penetrate all parts of the island while offering the consumer fast, reliable and easy access t o t he complete range of Huawei smartphones”.

China’s Huawei is the world’s third largest smartphone provider in the world, and a major global force in telecommunications and networking. A household name in Asia and increasingly in Western markets, Huawei is also rapidly becoming a market leader in Latin America and Central Asia, and a major player in Canada. In 2013, Huawei launched its “Make it Possible” campaign aimed at making the connected world a reality for more people.

According to I DC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Huawei achieved 6.9 percent market share, up from 4.3 percent i n Q2 2013, shipped 20.3 million smartphone units, and achieved the highest year-on-year increase among leading vendors at 95.1 percent. In Q2 2014, Huawei Consumer Business Group (BG) retained its number three position in global smartphone shipments for the fourth consecutive quarter, according to market research and analysis firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

According to global market research company IPSOS, Huawei’s brand awareness reached 52 percent globally and 68 percent in China in 2013, a year-on-year increase of 110 percent and 113 percent respectively. Huawei’s brand awareness also saw significant improvement in markets such as South America, Southeast Africa and Europe.