China’s Huawei is readying an answer to Apple’s upcoming iPhone

A visitor tests the functions on a Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Mate 9 smartphone inside a phone store operated by Telkom SA SOC Ltd., in Pretoria, South Africa, on Tuesday, July 25, 2017. South Africa is evaluating assets it could sell to pay for this month’s 2.2 billion rand ($169.5 million) bailout of unprofitable carrier South African Airways, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said in letter to parliament. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

Huawei Technologies Co is aiming to grow mobile shipments by only a modest amount in 2017, as it gears up to go head-to-head with the hotly anticipated 10th-anniversary edition of Apple Inc’s iPhone. 

The world’s No 3 smartphone maker, which in 2016 declared it will someday surpass both Apple and Samsung Electronics Co in market share, is shooting for shipments of 140 million to 150 million units in 2017 – up marginally from 139 million in 2016. But it’s also putting the finishing touches on its most powerful device yet, the Mate 10.