By Telecom Lead Team:
As major mobile manufacturers Nokia and Sony Ericsson continue to see average
results in the smartphone market, Chinese telecom equipment firms including
Huawei and ZTE have announced their ambitions to strengthen their presence in
smartphone market with a low-price strategy.
Recently, Forbes said telecoms
superstars Huawei and ZTE continue to send out new signals underscoring how
serious they are about developing their cellphone business, as both realize
that growth potential could be severely limited for their traditional
networking equipment business.
Huawei and ZTE: Swapping Networking
for Cellphones?
According to Forbes report, the
networking equipment business is cyclical, unlike cellphones that experience
relatively constant demand. With all those factors in play, it’s not surprising
to see both Huawei and ZTE looking to cellphones for stability.
Huawei Technologies
shipped 20 million smartphones globally in 2011, a fivefold increase. It
recorded sales of $6.8 billion from its consumer business last year, which
includes devices such as mobile phones and tablet PCs. That was more than 40
percent higher than $4.8 billion in 2010.
Additionally, Huawei
is going to launch its first own-branded device in the U.K. this autumn as part
of plans to bring smartphones for all. The Chinese gear maker has become
aggressive for achieving its target to become one of the biggest smartphone
brands.
In the third quarter
of 2011, China’s smartphone shipments reached 23.9 million units, surpassing
the 23.3 million units of the United States, making China the world’s largest
smartphone market by shipments, according to Strategy Analyics.
ZTE is targeting sales
of 80 million handsets in 2012 along with 100 percent smartphone volume growth.
ZTE is gearing up to
increase its global sales, as its Blade smartphone obtained recognition for the
second best selling WCDMA phone throughout China last summer. ZTE’s Windows
model Tania is debuting in the U.K. at the monthly contract rate of 10 pounds.
Moreover, ZTE’s Skate
has received remarkable uptake, with more than 2 million units shipped since
its introduction last year. The company’s Blade phone is its top model with 8
million units shipped.
“So-called ‘hero’
devices, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus and Apple’s iPhone 4S, garner the bulk
of the attention heaped on the device type. But a growing number of sub-$250
device offerings, based on the Android operating system, have allowed Google’s
hardware partners to grow smartphone volumes and expand the market
concurrently,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s
Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker program.
Recently, ZTE said
sales of its smartphones will double this year as it gains market share in
Europe, North America, Brazil and Japan. It added that sales of the
handsets rose fivefold to more than 12 million units last year.
ZTE and Huawei are in
the process of crushing the mid-tier Android competition, but they are also
eyeing other device segments.
By Danish Khan
editor@telecomlead.com
