Huawei slashes prices in fight for China’s smartphone market share

Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies has slashed prices for a range of high-end handsets in new efforts to boost sales amid cutthroat competition in the world’s biggest smartphone market.

The company reduced the price of its top-of-the-line Pura 70 Ultra device, launched in April, to 8,999 yuan (US$1,233) for the 1 terabyte version – an 18 per cent discount from the original price of 10,999 yuan, Huawei’s official online store Vmall showed. The 512 gigabyte version is being sold at a steeper markdown of 20 per cent.

Huawei already made rare price cuts of up to 1,000 yuan for the Pura 70 series in July. The latest discounts come after the company released in November the flagship Mate 70 series and the foldable Mate X6, as it gunned for a larger share of a market dominated by Apple and several Chinese rivals.

The Shenzhen-based company’s domestic shipments of premium-priced smartphones – handsets that cost more than US$600 – surged 34 per cent in the September quarter, according to consultancy Canalys. That gave Huawei a 33 per cent share of its home market, closing in on Apple, which continued to lead with a 52 per cent share.