Huawei will be bigger than Apple and Samsung, exec says

Chinese mobile-maker Huawei is better known for its work on the infrastructure side of things than its generally low-end Android phones. But it has ambitious plans to change all that.

Speaking to the Telegraph, chief executive Wan Biao says he thinks the company can topple Apple and Samsung, and be the world's biggest phone firm. Not only that, he reckons it could take as little as five years to do so.

"If you look back five years ago, Apple is small, Samsung is not so big," Wan told the paper. "You can't see where we'll be in five years. At least top three. Maybe number one."

That's quite some claim. But then in the last quarter of last year, the company did come third in the global sales stakes, with only Apple and Samsung selling more mobiles.

It has a new flagship phone planned for later in the year that'll take on the iPhone, according to Wan. Android continues to be its priority, but it will stick with Windows Phone 8, though Wan says it's hard to predict where Microsoft's mobile OS will go.

"For us all the focus is on Android, but we will also try Windows," he said. "Right now, the sales are good, but it's pretty hard to predict Windows Phone."

Huawei has also been mired in controversy over claims its networks have built spying capabilities into its hardware. It denies this, and there has been no evidence of any wrongdoing, despite fears from the US.

Huawei's rise has seen it dubbed 'the new HTC'. Like the Taiwanese firm, it started out making (and still does make) branded phones for networks, but is increasingly striking out on its own, offering budget alternatives to big-name blowers. There's still a huge gap between it and Apple and Samsung though.

Can it take on the big boys? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.