China unveils 'world's fastest smartphone'
Headlining at the mobile phone industry's annual gathering in Barcelona , which opened its doors a day after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallied across Spain in protest at national austerity, Huawei presented its latest device to run on Google's Android software .
The Ascend P2 connects to the web two or three times faster than othersmartphones when using Wi-Fi, its maker claims, downloading high-definition films in minutes and videos, songs and ebooks in just seconds.
In the Christmas quarter, Huawei overtook BlackBerry to become the world's third largest smartphone maker. Although it is some way behind Samsung and Apple , its less expensive but high-performing handsets are attracting a growing following.
It shipped a total of 127m consumer devices last year, of which 32m were smartphones alongside more basic "feature" phones, home broadband modems and dongles to connect laptops to mobile networks, according to The Guardian.
The division generated $7.5bn of revenues in 2012, a 10% increase on the previous year. Overall income including sales of network equipment to telecoms companies totalled $35.4bn, bringing Huawei level for the first time with the market leader Ericsson.
The surge in sales is despite heightened concerns in Washington and London over cyberspying and the degree to which Huawei's equipment should be trusted at the heart of western networks.
A United States Congressional report in October stated the firm and its fellow Chinese business ZTE posed a national security threat, while the UK's Intelligence Security Committee is due to complete its own investigation shortly.
In a sign of the shifting power balance in telecoms, Huawei and Samsung are vying with Sweden's Ericsson and US computer chip maker Qualcomm to host the largest stands at this year's Mobile World Congress trade fair.
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