Huawei sees revenue growth slowing in 2011

SHANGHAI, CHINA: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd , the world's No.2 network equipment maker, expects growth in revenue to slow in 2011, but still reach the $100 billion mark in a decade, driven by the sales of telecom devices and smartphones.

Huawei, which competes with Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Chinese rival ZTE Corp , expects revenue to grow about 10 per cent to $31 billion this year.

Huawei's revenue rose 24 per cent to 185 billion yuan in 2010, with two thirds of its business coming from telecom networks and its devices division, which sells consumer products such as cell phones and tablet PCs, contributing a sixth.

"The (comparison) base is very high so maintaining the strong pace of growth will be difficult," Fan Chen, vice president of accounting, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Shanghai.

Earlier in the month, the company reported a 30 per cent rise in 2010 net profit to $3.64 billion.

The company attributed the increase to strong overseas sales and growth in its core businesses of telecommunications networks, global services and devices.

Chief Marketing Officer Richard Yu told the conference that the firm's revenue was expected to reach $100 billion in the next 10 years on sales of telecom devices, smartphones and other services.

Victor Xu, chief strategy and marketing officer of Huawei Device, told Reuters earlier in the month the company aims to ship 60 million mobile phones this year, doubling from last year as it makes an aggressive drive in the feature-filled mobile devices sector with smartphones and tablet PCs.

Huawei is betting on Google Inc's Android operating system for its smartphones, a fast-growing sector in which Apple Inc's iPhone, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy and others are competing for market share.

ZTE said in March global smartphone sales would likely rise to 12 million units from just 3 million in 2010, partly driven by the launch of lower-priced handsets.