Huawei Technologies' 2015 profit up 32% on strong sales in smartphones

According to the company, the sales of its smartphones and other consumer technology rose 73% to 129.1 billion yuan (nearly $19.9 billion or Rs 1.32 lakh crore) during the period.

Huawei Technologies, one of the biggest makers of telecoms equipment, said on Friday its 2015 profit jumped 32% on strong sales of smartphones and switching gear as carriers upgraded wireless networks to 4G.

Huawei said it earned 36.9 billion yuan (nearly $5.7 billion or Rs 37,920.8 crore) on global revenue of 395 billion yuan (nearly $60.8 billion or Rs 4.04 lakh crore).

Huawei, the first Chinese company to break into the top ranks of global technology providers, is privately held but releases annual results in an attempt to ease concern in the United States and some other countries that it might be a security risk.

The company, based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, said sales of smartphones and other consumer technology rose 73% to 129.1 billion yuan (nearly $19.9 billion or Rs 1.32 lakh crore).

Founded in 1987 as a maker of switching gear, Huawei launched a smartphone brand in 2009. It passed Chinese rival Lenovo last year to become the No 3 smartphone brand behind Samsung and Apple by handset shipments, according to IDC.

Huawei said earlier it shipped 108 million smartphones last year, the first Chinese brand to pass the 100 million mark.

Sales of network gear rose 21% to 232.3 billion yuan (nearly $35.8 billion or Rs 2.38 lakh crore) as telecoms carriers upgraded to fourth-generation (4G) mobile service.

Huawei competes with Finland's Nokia Corporation and Sweden's LM Ericsson in network gear and wireless base stations.

Huawei has China's biggest corporate research and development budget and said spending on that rose 46% last year to 59.6 billion yuan (nearly $9 billion or Rs 59,874.8 crore).