China's Huawei ships 17.5 million smartphones globally in first quarter, up 28 percent year-on-year

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd said smartphone shipments rose 28 percent in the first quarter, helped by demand for higher-margin models aimed at a premium market dominated by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc. The Shenzhen-based company said it shipped 17.5 million smartphones globally over January-March. Of that, about 34 percent were mid- to high-end models, compared with 5 percent in the same period a year earlier. Huawei aims to ship 100 million smartphones globally in 2015. Shipments last year reached 75 million versus a target of 80 million. (Reporting by Yimou Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing)