The endeavors committed by China's telecom carriers to build the next-generation 5G networks could help Huawei ramp up its smartphone shipments. which will allow the China-based telecom giant to outrace Samsung Electronics to become the world's number one smartphone vendor in the near future, according to industry sources.

Huawei managed to move into second place by shipping 54.2 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2018, surpassing Apple's shipments of 41.3 million units and trailing after Samsung's shipments of 71.5 million units in the quarter, according to IDC.

Inspired by its second-quarter achievements and the ongoing sales momentum enjoyed by its smartphones in regions including Europe and Africa in addition to China, Huawei now aims to outrace Samsung to become the top smartphone vendor worldwide by the fourth quarter of 2019.

The data from IDC also showed that Huawei saw its second-quarter shipments grow 40.9% over a year earlier, while Samsung experienced a 10.4% decline.

Huawei's goal is achievable if it continues to ramp up its shipments at a pace of about 30-40% and Samsung to see its shipments slide at a rate of 10-15% going forward, commented the sources.

More importantly, Huawei is expected to continue to lead Samsung in the China market in the forthcoming 5G era by strengthening its cooperation with the top-three local telecom carriers which together boast about 50-60% of the global 4G users currently, said the sources.

The sources continued that China's telecom carriers are also likely to secure a leading position in the global race to build 5G networks, leveraging the large user base, communication infrastructure and technologies available currently.

Huawei will benefit from the emerging 5G environments by releasing its first 5G-enabled smartphone in mid-2019, said the sources, adding that the preemptive launch of the planned 5G model will also further shore up Huawei's brand image and competitiveness as it will be powered by 5G chips developed in-house.

Huawei has been enhancing its ties with China Mobile, which reportedly has set up 7,100 5G base stations in five major cities in China, and plans to launch experimental 5G services in 12 major cities in 2018.

Huawei, China Mobile and Intel also announced recently that the three parties have completed 5G interoperability and development testing (IoDT) in compliance with the latest 3GPP Release15 Standard. This multi-vendor 5G NR IoDT is a key step to end-to-end 5G commercialize system, according to the joint announcement.

Meanwhile, Huawei has also established a strategic alliance with companies including China Mobile and Alibaba Cloud to dedicate efforts to the developments of AI technology and smart networks, which could also serve as an impetus for pushing the sale of Huawei's 5G smartphones, commented the sources.