ZTE Achieves 35 Million Handsets Milestone in First Half of 2011

ZTE Corporation (ZTCOF) today announced that it had shipped 60 million terminal products including 35 million handsets in the first half of 2011. This represents an approximately 30 percent increase year-on-year in handsets shipped and resulted in the firm experiencing a 400 percent increase in smartphone sales and 300 percent US market growth. “We are pleased with the success of the Blade worldwide and of our other handsets in other major markets. We aim to launch over 30 smart terminals during the remainder of 2011, including middle to high-end smartphones such as SKATE, Windows Phone 7 and TD-LTE dual-module and dual-waiting models.” Under its innovative smart terminal strategy announced at the beginning of 2011, sales of ZTE smart terminals reached five million units in the first half of 2011, a 400 percent increase year-on-year. In 2011, ZTE's Blade also became one of the world's top-selling smartphones. Through partnerships with approximately 80 operators globally, ZTE's Blade is now available in nearly 50 countries and regions. The Blade's daily sales in China are the nation's highest for Android smartphones, averaging 16,000 units per day. ZTE has now sold 2.5 million Blade handsets globally and expects to break the five million mark this year. The firm also aims to ship 12 million smart terminals in the second half of the year. As a result of this strategy, the company has grown in market share in four major strategic markets: China, North America, Europe and Latin America. In China, ZTE's handset business is growing at a rate of over 20 percent. This can be attributed to the company's partnership with the nation's three top operators to create custom-made Android smartphones. Further, as a result of its partnerships with top carriers in the United States, sales of ZTE handsets there rose 300 percent in the first half of 2011. In Europe, ZTE is partnering with over 65 operators on smartphones, with its handset sales increasing over 30 percent in the region in the same time period. In Latin America, ZTE's share of the Brazilian market rose 46 percent and the company secured investment for a high-tech industrial park, which is slated to become the country's biggest telecommunications research, production and training center and ZTE's first R&D location in Latin America. Market analyst IDC's World Mobile Phone Tracker July 2011 report states that ZTE became the fifth-largest mobile phone vendor in the world after it shipped the units in the first two quarters of the year. The firm gained an overall market share increase to 4.5 percent from 3.3 percent a year earlier and is the only Chinese company in the top five. According to the report, ZTE and Apple are the only two vendors among the top five that experienced over 30 percent gains in market share growth. ZTE has now gained more than 30 percent in market share for five consecutive years. The company will continue to seek to grow its handset business. ZTE Executive Vice President He Shiyou stated: “We are pleased with the success of the Blade worldwide and of our other handsets in other major markets. We aim to launch over 30 smart terminals during the remainder of 2011, including middle to high-end smartphones such as SKATE, Windows Phone 7 and TD-LTE dual-module and dual-waiting models.”