Huawei may not be as common as Apple or Samsung to people in the United States. However, the Chinese tech company has big plans and aims to be the leading smartphone maker in the world within the next five years.

In a statement acquired by The Wall Street Journal, Huawei's Director of Consumer Electronics Business Richard Yu said, "We want to be the number-one smartphone maker in the world. It's a long distance race, and we have the patience."

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Aside from aiming to be the leader of the smartphone market, Huawei, along with Ericsson, are two of the world's largest suppliers of telecommunications networking gear. While Huawei is still operating its networking arm, over the past five years the company has significantly shifted its focus to the smartphone market.

Yu shared his vision at the Converge Technology Conference in Hong Kong. The director's comments come as Huawei is slowly closing the gap on Apple and Samsung in terms of global smartphone market share.

In the first three months of 2016, Huawei's smartphone sales volume grew by 59 percent compared to its performance in 2015. Meanwhile, in the same period year-over-year, Samsung's sales volume remain almost unchanged while Apple has experienced a 14 percent sales decline.

According to Market Watch, Huawei's market share in the first quarter of 2016 sits at 8.3 percent, Apple holds 15 percent, while Samsung is still on top with 23 percent.

Although Huawei is posting positive sales figures, most of the company's customers are in Asia. The company only posted minimal sales in the U.S. market.

While many analysts consider the U.S. market to be dominated by Apple and Samsung, Huawei is eagerly working to tap into the market. The company has dedicated $9.2 billion to research and development in order to create a product that can rival the iPhone and the Galaxy series of devices.

TagsHuawei, Huawei plans, huawei update, Huawei News, apple, Samsung, Smartphone, smartphone market