By 
Though ZTE has only recently entered the US smartphone market, the company has a much longer history producing budget-level devices for other areas of the world. But now that a claim has been staked in American soil, ZTE America President Lixin Cheng has sights set on bigger and better things. With sales of ZTE devices up 157 percent year-over-year, Cheng sees the US as the manufacturer’s primary focus in the future. To further their cause ZTE is expected to produce a lineup of high-end smartphones that will compete head-to-head with the likes of Samsung, HTC, and Motorola.
The move is similar to that of Huawei, a smartphone manufacturer that once dealt exclusively in low-end and entry-level devices, mostly for emerging markets. Over the past year or two, Huawei has introduced their lineup to the US and moved on to higher caliber hardware. It is unlikely, however, that the likes of Huawei and ZTE will be challenging established brands for market supremacy any time soon. Their real strength lies in the ability to manufacturer hardware that combines desired features at a low cost.
ZTE hasn’t made any plans public, but it is assumed that Android will feature on at least one high-end device moving forward. The other likely option would be Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.
[via TechCrunch]
I know it’s a growing market that’s not going to level off any time soon, but does it seem a little crowded right now? I know, that’s what we all thought when Samsung and LG got involved.
How is it more crowded than any other market? How many companies manufacture TVs? DVD players? Tables? Watches? Clothes?
I think you see where I’m going. There’s no reason we need to limit the smartphone market to 3 or 4 manufacturers.
Crowded? Not really. It the same number of manufacturers as before, it’s just that we’re all paying more attention to them all because of the smartphones they’re making now. I’ve been hearing good thingsabout ZTE for years now and as for myself I would be glad to see LG pushed out. Every Android based LG phone I’ve owned has been an absolute horrid piece of garbage. It’s incredible to think that such a high profile company could take such an advanced mobile OS and make it into a crippled, worthless piece of tech. LG should not be allowed to make smartphones.
Me and my brother have been using our LG phones for a while now and never had any issues with them.
No, not really:
http://pocketnow.com/android/lawsuit-seeks-to-force-lg-to-fix-t-mobile-g2x-problems
We never got a phone through a carrier, so I can’t comment on that.
I hate the low end smartphones. I know there’s people out there who buy them but there needs to be a limit to how many crappy smartphones can be in the market. A new smartphone user or tech noob could buy a smartphone and it end up being a pile of junk.
Some low-end smartphones are great though and manage to do a good job of retaining key features of their bigger brothers! Just take a look at the success of the ZTE Blade in the UK. It cost £99 a year ago to buy outright as a pas as you go phone and for someone who’s not particularly tech savvy it could do just about everything that an HTC Desire could do (even if it was a 600MHz processor as opposed to a 1GHz snapdragon). Even more so if you know how to stick CM on it, then the thing runs like the clappers!
I use a low end smartphone. It does everything any other android phone does except for two things: gaming (which i never do on a phone) and flash (which i never had to use on a phone to begin with)
Yes, it’s “slow” and the animation is not “smooth”, but speed and smoothness is subjective, and I never really care for those two as long as the phone is fast/smooth enough for me.
That, and I saved $550 (contract-free). I’m sure gaming and flash aren’t worth paying ~$550 extra.
Im excited. I want a high end smartphone with ICS on Virgin Mobile. ZTE will probably fit the bill.
I dont know why people keep hating on low entry budget devices, I love my Samsung Galaxy Prevail which just happens to be an entry level smart phone. Lets hope boostmobile gets some decent mid and up budget phones. They have the ZTE Warp already but I havent looked to see how well it is and how well its doing.
Four major carries here should only have mid and hi end phones. Go to metro or cricket to get low end phone if you’re low on cash. Coverage are for those two carries should be good right now. They are expanding coverage too. I’m just saying.