An unnamed Huawei US manager has admitted that the hurdles of the Mate 9’s faces in the US are “very challenging”.

Huawei has low brand recognition in the US and it is not helped by claims that the company was once suspected of posing a potential national security threat to the Land of the Fee.

The phone maker has jumped through lots of hoops to make its smartphones meet the technical demands of US mobile networks, but it is worried that is not enough.

Huawei announced that the Mate 9 would be sold in the US last month, but hasn’t revealed a release date or price

The device would likely be sold through online retailers because Verizon and Sprint see little benefit in selling Huawei phones on their network. A partnership with T-Mobile is unlikely because Huawei is in the middle of a patent dispute with the carrier.

Huawei began selling its flagship phones in the US earlier this year and currently holds a reported 0.4 percent smartphone market share there, compared to Apple’s 39 percent and Samsung’s 23 percent share.

CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group Richard Yu said he wants Huawei to overtake Apple as the second biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world in two years and to do that he must hurt Apple on its home ground.

The Huawei Mate 9 is on sale now for €699 in Europe and it is an expensive but rather nice phone.