Despite many analysts’s views that Chinese handsets makers – ZTE and Huawei – have better presence in China only and outside China, they have limited acceptability, yet both the companies are quite upbeat about their rising sales of handsets especially smartphones.
As per a report appearing in a Chinese website, Huwei expect to sell around 30 million handsets in the year 2012 and out of which 20 million will be smartphones. Huawei has launched recently a high-end smartphone, the Ascend P1, for contract-free sale at US $476 in the China market and aims to launch additional Ascend-series high-end models in the China market in 2012, the report indicated.
Another Chinese company – ZTE Corp, which launched its first basic mobile phone in Africa little more than 10 years ago, said it could be shipping 100 million smartphones a year by 2015. This figure is very optimistic but keeping in view of the fact that ZTE was able to sell 15 million smartphones last year and have set target of 50 million for the year 2012 and by this logic their sales target of 100 million could be achievable.
ZTE also plans to launch its first two phone-cum-tablet ‘phablets’ this year, hoping to branch out from China’s fiercely competitive mobile mass market. They want to come up with the next generation of Samsung’s Galaxy Note-type product – a combo product of handsets and tablets.
ZTE, the world’s No.4 handset producer has fared better than its rival Huawei Technologies Co Ltd in mobile sales, but lags its local peer in its mainstay telecom equipment business.
Both have diversified into consumer gadgets, selling dongles, smartphones and tablets to drive revenue growth as the telecom equipment sector stagnates, and both have met stubborn resistance in the United States where cyber-security issues have kept the telecom equipment market largely off-limits.
ZTE plans to focus on its Blade and Skate handphone models, upgrading them rather than unveiling new models, and expects to also double its tablet PC sales this year. As a next great leap, ZTE caused a stir at this year’s MWC in Barcelona with the launch of its Era smartphone, boasting technical specifications matching those of international rivals. In February, ZTE launched its first tablet in the United States with partner Sprint Nextel. The Android-based Optik tablet, which has a unique rubberized grip to stop it slipping, can be bought for $100 with a contract and $350 without, making it far cheaper than the latest iPad that costs at least $499.
Only roadblock with Chinese vendors is that their brand is not established the way Samsung and Apple have established themselves and that comes in their way of reaching out to brand-conscious customers who prefer to buy only branded devices. But if their specifications match with established players and they can provide good after sales service then definitely they can knock at the doors of prospective buyers.
Our personal opinion is that all the devices of Chinese origin are not bad especially those devices which are manufactured by reputed Chinese companies who have invested huge amount on their quality control processes. If Chinese companies can manufacture state of the art devices for world-renowned companies like Apple Inc., and Amazon.com of US then they can definitely do justice with the devices having their own brand name.
