Having exited the fourth largest smartphone market in the world in terms of size about a decade ago following failure of its cheaper handsets, China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is set to launch two new high-end handsets this month in an effort to re-enter and make it big in the market.

Currently the Chinese company is engaged in the business of supplying equipment for cellular networks in the market. With the launch of the new handsets, it would be rivalling the likes of Samsung Electronics Co and Lenovo Group’s Motorola brand – which are the dominant players in the market currently.

“Brazil is a market with very significant opportunities for Huawei and we have a competitive portfolio to satisfy consumers’ expectations,” said Ketrina Dunagan, Huawei’s vice president of marketing for the Americasm in a statement to the media.

The move made by Huawei also reflects the desire and growing influence of Chinese tech companies into the Latin American technology and consumer market and shifting from their traditional role of suppliers of commodities and infrastructure.

For Huawei, Brazil is one of the very few markets where its mobile handsets and cannot be seen on retail store shelves. Currently the smartphones from Huawei are available in more than a dozen markets in Latin America and in many of the markets the company has market share in double digits.

Just behind Apple and Samsung, Huawei is the third largest smartphonemaker of the world and it first launched a smartphone in the Brazilian market in 2014. But the project was later discontinued after its Ascend P7 could not generate desired demands in the market.

Huawei’s new plan involves importing in to the market two models of its new P30 Series that have features such as high-resolution cameras, the company said. No further details were divulged by the company as the models are set to be launched in Brazil on April 30.

“The commercial strategy is completely different this time because the brand is still not well-known by Brazilians,” said reports quoting sources familiar with the matter.

According to reports, the business plan of Huawei for Brazil this time is to establish partnerships with retail chains account for sale of more than two-thirds of handsets in the country. This is contrast to the market entry strategy of Hauwei the last time when it had partnered with a mobile carrier for selling its smartphones despite the service provider accounting for only one tenth of the total new smartphones sold in Brazil back then.

The attention of increasingly sophisticated buyers could also be grabbed by Huawei by launching more cutting-edge models.

“The Brazilian market has reached a maturity level and manufacturers must bring novelties to convince consumers to replace their smartphones for new ones,” said Renato Meireles, a research analyst at IDC Brasil.

“The first semester is still affected by economic and political turbulences, but sales should improve in the second semester with the arrival of new players”, he said

(Adapted from Reuters.com)