By TelecomLead Team: In order to acquire a bigger share of the global mobile
phone market and catch up with international competitors such as Apple and
Samsung, telecom equipment maker ZTE announced that it is aiming to expand
sales at its mobile phone business to 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) by 2015,
accounting for more than 50 percent of the company’s total annual revenue.
ZTE’s mobile phone business achieved a global revenue
growth rate of more than 50 percent in 2011. The US market led the growth with
a doubling of both smartphone sales and shipments last year,” said He Shiyou,
executive vice-president of ZTE.
In 2011, ZTE was the world’s fifth-largest mobile phone
manufacturer and sold 56.9 million handsets, according to the research company
Gartner Inc.
The consumer-device business, including handsets,
contributed about 33 percent of ZTE’s total revenue in 2011, and the figure is
likely to climb to more than 40 percent this year.
ZTE aims to sell at least 30 million smartphones this year,
rising from 12 million in 2011. The company will make greater efforts to
develop and launch mid- to high-end smartphones in the near future, as it looks
to lift its profit margin by aggressively increasing its sales.
Unlike the traditional telecom-equipment industry, which has
experienced relatively stable development in recent years, the global
mobile-phone industry is changing quickly. “The rapid industry growth will
create chances for ZTE to catch up with our rivals, but if we are not on the right
track, we will quickly lose the opportunity,” Shiyou added.
The exec vice president noted that ZTE will step up the pace
of development and launching of new models – a strategy to help the company
closely follow strong rivals.
ZTE has just joined the quad-core (processors that use
four cores) race by launching the ZTE Era at the World Mobile Congress. The
4.3-inch handset runs on the Android 4.0 operating system and has the Nvidia
Tegra 3 quad-core processor.
The
Chinese makers of telecom gear, Huawei and ZTE, have both been quite aggressive
in expanding their market share in the global mobile phone business.
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.
