Upstart Chinese Smartphone Maker Eyes US Market in 2012

Photo: mycricket.com

2011 was a pretty big year for most smartphone vendors, with increased consumer adoption leading to strong growth for many industry players. Back in the fall we noted that both of the low-cost Chinese manufacturers ZTE and Huawei were projected to grow the most. Indeed, we saw ZTE (HKG:0763; SHE:000063) in particular overtake the mighty Apple in mobile handset marketshare worldwide, jumping to 4.9 percent according to numbers from IDC (see chart, lower right [1]).

And today Bloomberg is reporting ZTE claims it will double its smartphone sales over the next year, with the US becoming its primary market, overtaking its home market of China where it holds about 35 percent market share. Back in September, ZTE launched its first phone in the US market on mobile carrier Cricket, the ZTE Score (pictured).

Note that according to third quarter numbers, ZTE still has much ground to make up in the smartphone wars, although the future is a little shaky for RIM and Nokia, who still occupy a large chunk of the smartphone market (see chart, lower left).

In addition to expanding to the US, ZTE aspires to make headway in Europe, Brazil, and Japan. Over the past year, we saw the company push low-cost Android devices in developing markets as well, such as Indonesia and India. It will indeed be interesting to see what 2012 year brings.