Telecom Lead Asia: IDC has ranked ZTE as the fifth
largest smartphone vendor and fourth mobile handset provider based on second
quarter shipments.
This is the first time ZTE has ranked in the global top
five smartphone providers.
The research agency said ZTE shipped eight million
smartphones in the second quarter of 2012 and its worldwide market share was
just 0.5 percentage points behind HTC and 1.4 percentage points behind Nokia.
ZTE smartphone shipments increased by 300 percent over
the same period in 2011, and achieved a global market share of 5.2 percent.
ZTE smartphone sales growth came principally from
mainland China and major overseas markets such as France, the United Kingdom
and the United States.
ZTE EVP and Head of the Terminal Division He Shiyou said
ZTE’s smartphone performance in 2012 in international markets has been a major
contributor to its consistent expansion, and is a demonstration of the depth
and strength of its R&D.
ZTE has have moved into the middle to high-end smartphone
market with the recent launch of the ZTE Grand X in countries including China,
Turkey and the UK, and ZTE will continue to build our handset capabilities in
the middle and high range sectors, while still delivering great lower-end
smartphones like the ZTE Kis.
In the second half of 2012 ZTE will launch the ultra-thin
quad-core Grand Era smartphone with high-end performance and design that will
give consumers the ultimate mobile Internet experience.
ZTE said smartphones are making up a higher and higher
percentage of our mobile devices. Entering the smartphone manufacturers top
five is an important milestone towards its target of becoming one of the top
three mobile phone manufacturers in 2015.
ZTE smartphone shipments for the full year of 2011 were
more than 15 million, an increase of 400 percent over 2010, making ZTE the
fastest growing smartphone maker after Apple.
