Two recent moves by mobile telecommunications company Huawei Technologies has signalled the Company's intention to bolster efforts on the continent. During the first two weeks of December 2014 Huawei opened a customer experience mobile phone shop in Cameroon and launched a new generation HD intelligent desktop phone, the Huawei eSpace 8950, in South Africa.

The Company, via its branch office Cameroon Ltd., recently opened a brand experience store in Yaounde'.

Huawei says the retail outlet is the first of its kind in the Capital and the second store launched in the country. A range of product, including the Ascend line of mobile models, will be available to consumers.

"It is more of a brand experience store for consumers to experience the Huawei brand versus a flagship store which simply punts out products ... after-sales service is also offered," according to Huawei.

Huawei confirmed that it is in the process of calculating sales figures and none are available for the region at this time.

In South Africa the eSpace 8950 is targeted at the growing mobile device application space, particularly within the local enterprise business market segment.

The device features a full-HD 1080p camera as well as full-band voice codec with a sampling rate of 48 kHz. These functions enable a HDMI-based video conference platform in which the user can project the content from the phone to a large screen interface, thus allowing the user to host a video conference.

It runs using the full-touch Android operating system, so in addition to built-in apps like the calculator, calendar, clock, email, electronic album and browser, users can also install their own third-party apps such as the news, weather or a media player.

"Huawei's eSpace 8950 answers the call for true mobility in enterprises," says Eman Liu, President of Huawei Enterprise Business Group for the eastern and southern Africa region. "It improves office collaboration among enterprise staff, partners, and their customers – anywhere via any device, with consistency."

Towards mid-November the Company shipped more than 3 million smartphones in Eastern and Southern Africa.

At the time Larking Huang, general manager at Huawei Consumer South Africa, said this year has been good for the company's consumer device business.

He added that in South Africa alone the company has shipped more than a million units, making Huawei the number 2 smartphone provider in the Middle East and Africa region.