China’s tech giant Huawei said Wednesday that it will launch a new computer product in South Korea, jumping into the fierce market race that has been led by home players as Samsung and LG.

Huawei will launch its new device MateBook that combines the features of a laptop and a tablet on Thursday. This is the first digital device the Chinese firm rolled out here other than smartphones it has offered since 2014 in partnership with mobile carrier LG Uplus. 


“We aim to satisfy various needs of Korean consumers by offering higher quality and services,” said Johnny Lau, head of Huawei’s consumer business group in Korea office, at the launching event in Seoul on Wednesday.

Huawei also appointed Shinsegae I&C, an affiliate of retail giant Shinsegae Group, as a main distributor of its consumer products. The company said it plans to expand the local distribution channel starting from online shopping malls including 11 Street, SSG.com and Ticket Monster.

The latest partnership with Shinsegae and a series of new product rollout are seen as the company’s apparent move to push sales in the Korean market, dominated by local brands -- Samsung and LG -- and Apple.

“We will do our best in selling Huawei’s consumer products utilizing years of distribution knowhow we gained,” said Koh Hak-bong, an executive of Shinsegae I&C, which is also a main distributor of Google’s Chromecast in Korea.

MateBook is the first personal computer of Huawei, which has grown mainly with telecommunications equipment and recently expanded its business into smartphones. The laptop was first unveiled at mobile technology exhibition Mobile World Congress early this year and was also rolled out in Japan last month.

The new computer, which is viewed as a rival to Microsoft’s Surface Book, features Microsoft’s Window 10, Edge Browser and intelligent personal assistant. It comes with two versions, M3 and M5, with the price of the first model starting from 880,000 won ($800) and the latter one from 1.2 million won.

On the same day, Huawei also unveiled its new tablet M2, which is also slated to go on sale on Thursday. The pad, which features 8-inch full high-definition display, 2 gigabyte ram, 16 gigabyte memory and Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Huawei, which did not mention its sales goal in South Korea, said it aims to reach $75 billion in sales this year in the global market. The tech firm garnered $36.8 billion in global sales in the first half.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)