Last year was a struggle for Huawei's handset business in Europe, losing 90% of its carrier customers as it transformed from an ODM model (catering to operators' specs) to an OEM one, producing high-end devices with higher margins.
Huawei's CMO of its consumer business group, Shao Yang, said most of the telcos have since come back, with 14 operators choosing to sell Huawei handsets. "They have shown they are willing to be a partner and cooperate."
In what Shao said was an attempt to "save telcos from Apple and Samsung", Huawei has pushed its branded strategy, which had paid off by the end of the year, with handset shipments increasing tenfold in Europe.
He said, at the company's analyst day on Tuesday, that not only does the company want to be the world's leading smart device brand, its goal is to be "most lovable consumer brand".
Sales of smartphones, which last year accounted for 60% of total handset shipments, jumped 70% to 32 million units. In 2011 feature phones accounted for 60% of sales.
Shao said Huawai is focused on three key markets: China, the largest in the world, Western Europe, a major influencer on other markets, and Japan, its testing ground for quality.