Huawei hits record sales despite security fears

Huawei's Ascend W1 Windows phone

Sarah Tew/CNET

The year of the snake was a good for one for Huawei. The Chinese phone builder became the world's third-biggest phone manufacturer on the back of record sales and flourishing profits in 2013, despite resistance to the company's expansion in other parts of the world.

Reporting its results for 2013, Huawei reveals revenue of 239bn RMB ($38.5bn), up by 8.5 percent on 2012, which raises net profit by a third to 21bn RMB, a three-year high.

Consumer sales grew by 17.8 percent while enterprise business sales grew by 32.4 per cent. A third of revenue comes from China, where income increased by 14.2 per cent, partly driven by the growth of 4G LTE.

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Huawei TalkBand B1 combines a fitness tracker with a Bluetooth headset (hands-on pictures)

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

The majority of Huawei's revenue comes from overseas, but some progress in the US, UK and Australia has been blocked over government concerns that the Shenzhen-based company has close ties to the Chinese government. Just last week the Chinese government accused the US of hypocrisy for spying on Huawei, as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Huawei used to be best known to western consumers for building phones that bore other labels, branded by carriers like the new EE Kestrel in the UK. But it's also come to prominence under its own name with 4G technology, and phones and tablets such as the 4GHuawei Ascend G6, MediaPad M1, as well as an entry to the world of wearable technology with the wrist-worn TalkBand B1. The Chinese manufacturer is now third only to Samsung and Apple in the mobile phone race.