Huawei moves into top three globally

Huawei Technologies Co. shipped more than 100 million smartphones this year as a drive to attract higher-end customers helped defy an industry slowdown that hit rival Chinese vendors.

China's largest mobile brand boosted shipments by 33 percent and moved into the top three globally, the Shenzhen-based company said in a statement on its website. Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc are the world's two biggest producers.

Huawei, which debuted its first Android device in 2009 to complement its main business of making networking equipment, is pushing into markets from the United States to Europe to take on Apple and Samsung. Expanding beyond China, where slowing market growth has hurt Xiaomi Corp and Lenovo Group Ltd, is part of a goal to sell 60 percent of smartphones overseas and generate about $16 billion of revenue from phones in 2015.