After getting its feets into the low-end handset market, China’s ZTE is now looking to enter the high-end market, too. Apparently, the Chinese company will begin shipping Windows Mobile-powered devices with Vodafone next year and there are signs of other such deals.
According to the research firm Ovum, ZTE will also work on Linux-powered smartphones. At the moment, however, it’s not clear whether they’ll “go Google” or join the “LiMo camp.” We certainly look forward to the former, though if they do a proper job, we’ll be among the first to congratulate them on their LiMo smartphone. Symbian, on the other hand, is not in ZTE’s roadmap at the moment.
ZTE’s growth in the handset markets has been rapid — from 15 million units shipped in 2006, the company is on course to ship 50 million in 2008. More than 80% of these are co-branded with and customized for its operator partners. In China, ZTE is a front runner in 3G devices and a clear leader in TD-SCDMA, owning more than 30% of the total market.
