Huawei has moved up to position 72 on Interbrand's 2016 Best Global Brands report, up from 88th spot achieved last year, an achievement the company says validates their R&D-focused strategy.

Interbrand reports that the company's brand value has increased by 18% (approximately US$5,835 million), underpinned by increased visibility across key markets, including Africa.

Glory Zhang, Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Consumer Business Group says this year's Interbrand ranking validates Huawei's strategy of focusing customer's' needs and desires. "Huawei maintains a careful balance of being a bold innovator as well as a rising challenger in the global market, and we have seen success out of our focus on R&D, product quality and customer satisfaction."

The ICT company has also been ranked in 50th position on BrandZTM's Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands earlier this year, up from 70th place secured in 2015.

Growing market share in Africa

Huawei sales revenue in the first half of 2016 increased by 41% year-on-year around the world to US$11.6 billion for its Consumer Business Group alone. Smartphone shipments for the company stood at 60.56 million in First Half Results for 2016 indicating a year-on-year increase of 25%.

IDC research into global smartphone shipments in the first half of 2016 on the other hand shows an increase of 3.1% globally.

Richard Yu, Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO says the company saw particularly fast growth in traditionally high-end smartphone markets such as Europe and emerging markets including North Africa, Central Asia & Latin America. The company says it looks to capitalise on this trend.

"Following European trends our growth has largely been in the G, P and M series in the US$200 - US$700 price band. We will continue to innovate at the high end and capture premium users says Charlene Munilall, GM of Huawei Consumer Business Group South Africa.

In key countries from North Africa and South Pacific, Huawei saw significant market share growth this year. In Egypt, Huawei's smartphone market share has reached over 20%. While in South Africa, Hauwei has grown by 38% when compared to the same period last year (January to May 2016) according to research conducted by GFK.