Launch Date For New Huawei Flagship Phone, Ascend P8, Revealed

Mike Moore,

Ascend P8 won’t be arriving at Mobile World Congress in March, as had been expected

Huawei has confirmed its latest flagship smartphone will be launched in London on April 15.

The Chinese manufacturer told media on a trip to its Shenzhen factory that the Ascend P8 will be revealed several weeks later than expected.

No information was revealed about the device, but based on the specifications of its predecessor, the Ascend P7, (pictured above) it will look to challenge high-end devices such as the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S5.

“There are a lot of challenges to sell in the UK. Consumers in London have a lot of choice and they have a very good sense of smartphones. We are working hard to increase market share,” Kevin Ho, president of Huawei’s handset product division, told Gizmodo.

Huawei standExpansive

Earlier this week, Huawei declared it plans to ship around 100 million smartphones in 2015 as part of its plans to become a heavyweight player on the mobile devices market. The company hopes that the bulk of this growth will come from high-end smartphones, with Huawei having launched several such devices last year, including the Ascend P7 smartphone (pictured above) and Mate 7 phablet.

The company will instead be focusing its Mobile World Congress efforts towards wearable technology and tablets, as it looks to target more and more Western customers. The company revealed it would be launched a smartwatch powered by Android Wear alongside several fitness-related wearables earlier this week.

The news is another blow to Mobile World Congress’ status as the world’s leading mobile technology show. Formerly the event where many of the major manufacturers would announce and unveil new devices, it seems many companies now prefer to hold their own separate launch events so as not to clash with the hundreds of others at the show.

That being, this year’s show is still expected to see the revealing of Samsung’s new flagship, the Galaxy S6, as well as possible new handsets from HTC and Microsoft.

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