Huawei reports strong third-quarter growth

Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Huawei said Wednesday that it grew 24.4 percent on-year in the first three quarters of 2019 on the back of smart devices and information and communications technology infrastructure sales.

The company said it generated $86 billion (CNY610.8 billion) in revenue during the first three quarters of 2019, an increase of 24.4 percent, and its net profit grew 8.7 percent on-year in this period.

"Huawei has maintained its focus on ICT infrastructure and smart devices, and continued to boost the efficiency and quality of its operations," Huawei said in a statement. "This contributed to increased operational and organizational stability and solidified the company's performance in the first three quarters of 2019."

The announcement follows the embattled tech giant being blacklisted through an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on May 15 that barred Huawei technologies in the United States and prohibited U.S. companies from selling components and software to Huawei, forcing it to deal with lesser-known companies.

The U.S. Commerce Department said the move was due to the "persistent national security and foreign policy threat" that Huawei poses to the United States.

Last month, the company released its first 5G smartphone without Google-licensed apps or operating system due to the blacklist, causing analysts to worry about the phone's future success.

"I don't see how many users would make so many compromises with such a phone," Garter Research Vice President Annette Zimmermann said at the phone's launch. "It's a lot of uncertainty."

Though Huawei's release did not mention specific products, it said it shipped more than 185 million smartphones in the year's first three quarters, representing a 26 percent increase in smartphone sales from the same period last year.

"The company also saw rapid growth in other new businesses like PCs, tablets, wearables and smart audio products," the company said.

The embattled Chinese tech giant said it also inked to date more than 60 commercial contracts of its fifth-generation cellular network technology, more commonly referred to as 5G, and partnered with more than 700 cities, 228 Fortune Global 500 companies and 58 Fortune Global 100 companies to supply them with its newly launched Horizon Digital Platform that aims to integrate digital information with the physical world through ITC and other technologies.