(Telecompaper) Huawei announced that it sold 27.4 million smartphones in the third quarter, an increase of 63 percent year-on-year. Huawei said it was on track to reach its target of shipping over 100 million smartphones this year. Growth in Q3 was especially strong outside its home market China, with shipments up 98 percent in Europe and 70 percent higher in the Middle East and Africa. The company said it's now among the top three smartphone makers in Australia, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and New Zealand. In China, the company reported annual growth in shipments of 81 percent for Q3, helping it take first place in the market. Mid-to-high-end devices, costing more than CNY 2,000, accounted for 33 percent of Huawei's shipments in Q3, up 7 percentage-points over the previous quarter. This was helped by new flagship devices such as the Mate 7, P7 and P8, which have reached 6.5, 7.5 and 4 million units respectively to date.