OREANDA-NEWS. June 06, 2016. If you live in the US, you might not know the name Huawei. So, the idea that the Chinese company could become the No. 1 phone maker in the world in 5 years seems far fetched. But that's just what the company is aiming for, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Speaking at the Converge technology conference in Hong Kong, Richard Yu, the head of Huawei's consumer electronics business, said he believes passing Samsung and Apple is a goal within reach.

"We want to be the number-one smartphone maker in the world. It's a long distance race, and we have the patience," Yu said, according to the Journal.

Huawei owns an 8.3 percent share of the global smartphone market, compared to 23 percent for Samsung and 15 percent for Apple, according to research firm Gartner. While Samsung's smartphone sales stayed flat and Apple's dipped 14 percent since last year, Huawei's sales in the first couple of months of 2016 were up 59 percent from 2015.