SHENZHEN, China--()--ZTE Corporation (“ZTE”) (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has laid out its challenge to the global leaders in the mobile handset market with the announcement of a wide range of new high-specification handsets and tablets. The new devices will target, in particular, users in the high volume/high value markets of Europe, Japan, the USA and China.
Leading the ZTE charge – announced at the Mobile World Congress 2012 telecoms industry event in Barcelona – is one of the thinnest quad-core smart phones on the market today, the ZTE Era, which will be launched in Europe and China in the second half of 2012.
The ZTE Era handset packs high definition multimedia capabilities into a package that is just 7.8mm thick. Based on the NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 quad-core mobile processor and equipped with a NVIDIA Icera 450 HSPA+ modem, with a 4.3 inch QHD (960 x 540 pixels) screen, 8GB of expandable memory, HD voice and Dolby sound, and running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), the ZTE Era provides powerful new ways of communicating and sharing, with easy multitasking, rich notifications and deep interactivity. The ZTE Era delivers a great combination of amazing battery life and outstanding performance with Tegra 3’s unique 4-PLUS-1™ quad-core architecture with a fifth battery saver core.
“Last year, ZTE terminal shipments grew by 50 percent, exceeding our objectives, and we achieved a 400 percent increase in smartphone shipments,” said ZTE EVP and Head of the Terminals Division, Mr. He Shiyou. “This growth has been worldwide - ZTE smart terminal shipments in Europe increased by over 300 percent last year, and terminal shipments in the US by 100 percent. Revenue from international business is now over 60 percent of ZTE’s terminal revenues.”
“Our long-term goal for the Terminals Division is to achieve a compound growth rate of above 40 percent per year for five consecutive years from 2010, and to become one of the top three vendors in the global handset market by 2015. This extensive new range of handsets, tablets, datacards and user features we are announcing here at Mobile World Congress 2012 will help us drive this momentum through 2012 and beyond. This is a new era for ZTE branded devices,” continued Mr. He Shiyou.
ZTE also announced a suite of new handsets including the ZTE PF112 with a 4.5-inch high density (HD) screen providing high quality 1028 x 720 pixels viewing and high specification audio and video capabilities; and 7-inch and 10.1-inch quad-core tablets for the European market.
Further announcements included the first appearance of the ZTE MiFavor UI smartphone user interface which simplifies and improves the Android user experience; the ZTE Touch and Share near field communications application which enables users to exchange data or make payment by simply touching their device to another; and additional models in existing handset ranges. These include the Kis and Acqua models with 3.5-inch and 4.0-inch screens respectively, providing additional price-points for ZTE's excellent value Android 2.3 range; and the ZTE Blade II with an upgraded 1.0GHz processor.
ZTE also announced its second Windows Phone smartphone, the ZTE Orbit which runs the latest version of Windows Phone, and comes with 4GB of memory, HD Voice, and a 5Mpx autofocus camera with LED flash. The ZTE Orbit follows the ZTE Tania running Windows Phone, which launched in the UK in January and is shipping in the next few weeks. The ZTE Orbit will be available sometime in the second quarter of this year.
According to industry analyst Gartner, ZTE was ranked the world's No.4 in terms of handset shipments in Q4 2011 and ZTE smartphone sales are growing faster than any other vendor except Apple.
“In 2012, ZTE products will be building up from the low-middle end of the market into the middle-high end, with the ZTE Era being the best example of that development,” Mr. He Shiyou said. “We will continue our long-standing cooperation with operators around the world, but we will also continue to build our distributor channels (both ODM and OEM), and we will be focusing our marketing in particular on the high-end markets of Europe, America and Japan.”
The ZTE Era, together with the comprehensive portfolio of ZTE terminals, is on display at MWC 2012 in Barcelona on the ZTE booth in Hall 8, stand B145.
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