A worker passes by the Huawei logo at a trade fair in Hanover, Germany, in this March 9, 2014 photo. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technologies Co. has hired a former Apple and eBay executive as its new interface designer, the company announced on Thursday.
Abigail Brody, who once worked at Apple for a decade before moving to eBay, will be the new chief designer for Huawei's smartphone interface and user experience, the company said in a statement on the Weibo social media site.
"Based on our plan, Huawei is going to set up a user experience design studio in the U.S., tracking and leading pioneering design concepts in the industry, working with China's domestic design teams to provide the best user experience of Huawei's ultimate products," the statement said.
Brody will be working under Richard Yu, head of Huawei's consumer business, including that of smartphones, the company added.
According to her LinkedIn page, Brody was the creative director and hiring manager at Apple for nearly 10 years to Jan. 11, working on the design of the first iPhone model and the iCloud.
"Abigail's R&D work defined the way Apple's applications look and feel," Brody's LinkedIn profile said.
Huawei also revealed that it is in the process of building a new user interface design studio in California's Silicon Valley or San Francisco.
Brody's hiring and plans for a U.S. design studio comes as Huawei, a major supplier of networking equipment to telecom carriers worldwide, is aggressively expanding its smartphone business.
In the third quarter, Huawei was the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer with a 7.5 percent share in the global market, behind Samsung's 23.8 percent and Apple's 13.5 percent, according to research firm IDC.
Huawei also reported a 63 percent year-on-year jump in smartphone shipments to 24.7 million unis in that same quarter, a faster rate of growth compared to Samsung's 6.1 percent and Apple's 22 percent.
The company specifically pointed to the success of its high-end handsets, which are key to escaping its image as a maker of cheap smartphones, in order to challenge premium competitors including Apple and Samsung.
Huawei also knocked Xiaomi--often dubbed as "China's Apple"--out of the number one spot as China's leading supplier in the third quarter, according to research firm Canalys.
