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 mobiles phones production and the enterprise business since 2010. The company was the world's sixth-largest mobiles phones 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 smartphoness this year and an average of 100 million annually in the future.

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

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

In addition to an ambitious sales target for its mobiles phones business, Huawei also plans to introduce a brand-new user interface for Huawei smartphoness 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 mobiles phones hardware because we will deliver smartphoness 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 smartphoness 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 smartphoness for its users by cooperating with mobiles phones makers both at home and abroad

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