Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world's second-biggest telecom equipment maker, said it expects its consumer device sales to reach $9 billion this year, rising from $6.8 billion in 2011, according to the company's chief executive officer of consumer business.

Established in China's southern coastal city of Shenzhen in 1987, Huawei is better known for its telecom equipment business and is very close to Sweden's Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson in annual sales.

However, the company has diversified its core businesses by entering new fields such as mobile phone production and the enterprise business since 2010. The company was the world's sixth-largest mobile phone producer by shipments last year, behind Nokia, Samsung, Apple, ZTE and LG, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

Yu Chengdong, chief executive officer of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said Huawei would ship 60 million smartphones this year and an average of 100 million annually in the future.

"The smartphone business will play an increasingly important role for Huawei," said Yu, at the 2012 Global Mobile Internet Conference held in Beijing on Thursday.

The company shipped nearly 150 million consumer devices, including 20 million smartphones, in 2011.

In addition to an ambitious sales target for its mobile phone business, Huawei also plans to introduce a brand-new user interface for Huawei smartphones from July. Yu did not reveal further details.

"Huawei wants to become, and has the ability to become, the world's No 1 in terms of mobile phone hardware because we will deliver smartphones with the fastest, thinnest features and some other leading qualities," Yu added.

Yu also said Huawei will cooperate with Qihoo 360 Technology Co, a Chinese online security software company, to produce customized smartphones for Qihoo 360 users. Yu said Huawei would open the door to other Internet companies as well.

Zhou Hongyi, chairman and chief executive officer of Qihoo 360 Technology Co, said previously that Qihoo 360 had decided to launch a series of customized smartphones for its users by cooperating with mobile phone makers both at home and abroad

The move is regarded as an important one for Qihoo 360 as it competes in the mobile Internet industry, analysts said. Other Chinese Internet firms, including Baidu Inc, Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd and Alibaba Group, have already launched self-branded smartphones.

shenjingting@chinadaily.com.cn