Huawei's smartphone sales soar after copying Xiaomi's online strategy

Beijing

CHINA'S Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has taken sales of its low-price Honor brand of smartphones to 20 million from one million in just one year, hitting pay dirt with the disruptive online-only strategy it copied from smaller upstart Xiaomi Inc.

Given the early signs, Huawei executives hope to emulate the phenomenal growth of Xiaomi, which broke into the global top five in just a few years - a success not likely to go unnoticed by the growing ranks of low-cost Chinese smartphone makers.