Telecom Lead India: ZTE will focus on 4G strategies for smartphone business growth.
ZTE’s present 4G / LTE smartphones include: ZTE Grand S and Grand Memo.
Announcing smartphone strategies ZTE says it will transition from a B2B business model to B2C and increase spending on branding and marketing to connect with end-users.
The company will collaborate with wireless operators to focus on high-end products, LTE broadband devices, intelligent integrated services, and product innovation, as well as integrate its e-commerce platforms to offer better and faster services for end-users.
ZTE expects to achieve 30 percent growth in its smartphone revenue in 2013. In 2012, ZTE has more than doubled shipments of smartphones. Its main competition is from Sony, Apple, Samsung, etc.
“4G is key to ZTE’s future, and our capabilities in LTE give us a lot of confidence. ZTE aspires to be the global leader in 4G, and shape the future of smart devices,” said ZTE EVP and Head of the Mobile Devices Division He Shiyou.
Moreover, the growth in smartphone sales globally helped the Chinese ICT solutions major to post a gross profit margin of 16.8 percent in its terminals division in 2012, up 1.6 percent from 2011.
The United States was one of the main countries, where ZTE sold smartphones significantly. ZTE says its strategic focus on developed markets resulted into better result.
In emerging markets including India, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina and Russia, ZTE also achieved fast growth.
In 2012, the distributors channel contributed 10 percent of ZTE’s terminal revenue for the first time.
The strong smartphone sales performance helped ZTE record 1.87 billion yuan of operating cash flow in 2012.
ZTE, which unveiled its Grand series in 2012, says it generated 15 percent of its smartphone revenue in 2012 from sales of mid to high-end devices in 2012. ZTE aims to grow the proportion to 25-30 percent this year.
