HONOR, the smartphone brand Huawei spun off in 2020, is aiming to stage a comeback in the global smartphone market after regaining share in domestic mobile phone market, the 21st Century Business Herald reported yesterday. At the ongoing Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Honor unveiled its first premium smartphone for the global market — the Magic 4 series. At a starting price of 899 euros (US$997), it’s the most expensive model the Shenzhen-based smartphone maker has launched so far. It will be released in multiple overseas markets simultaneously, marking the first step of the company’s global expansion strategy that will hopefully see it make breakthroughs in overseas markets including France, Finland, Czech, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Mexico before the end of the year, the newspaper quoted Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, as saying. In the home market, Honor edged out domestic peers Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi in the fourth quarter last year to become the second largest smartphone company in China after Apple, according to data from Counterpoint Research. Its fourth-quarter shipments grew 253.4 percent from a year earlier, according to data from IDC. “Despite the challenges posed by global chip shortages, I insist that we should continue our investment in research and development (R&D) for the global market,” said Zhao, adding that Honor will release four new products in the upcoming two or three months. “Last year, we focused on recovering, and this year our global sales are expected to double,” Zhao said. With more than 11,000 employees, six R&D centers and more than 100 innovation laboratories, Honor is fully prepared for global expansion, Zhao said. Honor has also established ties with more than 200 telecom operators and distributors across the world, according to Zhao. The company’s midrange Honor 50 smartphone went on sale in 49 overseas markets last year, followed by the Honor 60 a few months later. Honor was the world’s ninth biggest smartphone maker by shipments in 2021, IDC data showed. (Liu Minxia) | 