Huawei sees smartphone shipments rise to 34 million, narrowly misses first-half targets

Huawei saw its smartphone shipments rise by two-thirds over the past six months, as the company increasingly targets the upscale Android market and emerging markets.

The Shenzhen, China-based technology giant said in a Tuesday statement it shipped 34.3 million smartphones globally in the first six months, ending June 30, or about 43 percent of its annual shipment targets of 80 million smartphones.

Compare that to the market leaders, Apple and Samsung, and that figure remains fairly weak. Apple saw 9 million iPhones sold in the first weekend on sale, while Samsung said it sold 11 million Galaxy S5 smartphones in the first month of sale.

Still, it's not bad for a key underdog in the China and Asia smartphone race.

The company also saw faster growth in the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America, with 275 percent and 550 percent year-over-year growth in the second quarter alone.

Huawei remains hopeful, however, that it can reach its annual shipments of 80 million by the end of the year, ahead of what is generally considered the lucrative December holiday quarter at the end of the year.

Out of that 80 million figure, the company wants 20 percent to be mid- to high-end models, up from the 16 percent shipped on the previous year, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile in the more developed nations, smartphone sales increased by 123 percent in the five major European nations, including the U.K., France, and Italy. In Germany and Spain, Huawei said it holds a 3 percent market share, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech statistics.

Looking ahead to the second half, Huawei said it's committed to the 4G LTE market and aims to further expand its collaboration with telecoms in order to open the market and online sales channels.