Things have turned around.

"We have made it through the worst," Shao said, noting that the Huawei P1, launched last year, has been well received. "The new flagship model P6 has been a huge success this year."

The company, which launched the P6 in June, predicts 10 million handsets will be sold by the end of the year.

Analysis from ABI Research, in New York, showed that in the second quarter of the year, Chinese companies ZTE, Huawei, TCL, Lenovo and Coolpad were ranked as the world's fifth to ninth branded phone makers in terms of sales shipments, surpassing Sony, Blackberry, HTC and Motorola.

The five companies together took up a 15-percent share of the global market of branded cell phones.

"This ranking counted the branded phones only, which means non-branded phones were excluded. Chinese companies' performances are actually impressive and exciting," Zhou Jianguo, chief technology officer of Changhong Electronics' mobile department said.

Three years ago, the Sichuan-based television maker entered the phone market. Its shipments reached eight million units last year, mainly exporting to central Asia.

"I bet Chinese mobile companies will be the third power after Samsung and Apple," Zhou predicted.

"The global market needs a third giant. Whoever it will be, it will be a Chinese company," Shao Yang of Huawei said. "What Samsung can achieve so can we."

From Shanzhai to Innovation

Chinese imitations and pirated brands and goods, known as "Shanzhai", are fresh in the memories of companies. Firms are looking to shake off being associated with the "knock-off" tag.

"Apple has the biggest industry influence, while Samsung owns the most complete industry chain. Huawei has very good global customer relations because we produce phones for so many carriers. But it's not enough," Shao said, "the only way out is innovation, and it has been proved by the market."

Shao said that Huawei spent seven months developing its P6 model. "Huawei is a tech-focused enterprise. We'll launch and promote a premium model every year, and we'll display our tech strength to the utmost."

Priced at around $500, similar to a Samsung handset, the Huawei Ascend P6 is equipped with a 1.5 GHz quad core processor and a 2000mAh battery.

"We want to sell our products at the right prices," Shao stressed. "High price for high quality, and what we earn we will invest again in technology innovation."