In U.S it is difficult for a tech foreigner to make its name in the presence of giants like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), LG and Samsung. Yet there is a name ZTE which is slowly trending in the U.S market with its cheaper handsets. ZTE started its campaign in U.S about 3 years ago with high hopes. ZTE started marketing its cheaper phones through small carriers like MetroPCS, launched some of its prepaid phones in bigger carriers’ stores and expanded from there. Its products are also available through the platform of Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy.
After receiving a driving response from U.S audience ZTE starts selling its devices through the bigger platforms like AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile. ZTE Maven, a cheaper phone whose features lays in-between iPhone 5 and iPhone 6, currently available through the platform of AT&T is trending fast. The phone is just available at a price tag of $60, without any subsidies. This isn’t the first cheaper handset which comes from the home of ZTE. Seeing its popularity of affordable phones ZTE has also launched other lower priced smaller prepaid smartphones for just $30, basic phones with QWERTY keyboards for about the same, and so on.
ZTE holds the 8 percent of the U.S smartphone market in the second quarter of the 2015 compared to 4.2 percent in a year earlier period, based on the IDC reports. This puts the firm among the U.S four largest smartphone companies regarding smartphone sales. “We came from nowhere, and now we are a solid force,” says Lixin Cheng, head of ZTE’s U.S. operations.
The firm has transformed itself from a networking equipment maker firm to smartphone maker in the U.S, as the firm is best known for supplying network routers and switches for mobile operators. The reason behind its transition is its shrinking networking business since 2012.
While the ZTE has been hardly recognized as a smartphone company in its home market China, the firm is doing much better in U.S than other Chinese pioneers like Lenovo and Huawei. Chinese smartphone market dominator, Xiaomi, hasn’t yet stepped in U.S. ZTE ranks No. 8 in China smartphone marketholding just 3 percent of the market share, down from 10 percent in 2012, according to researcher Canalys.
For now the main concern for the firm is to convert higher sales into higher revenue. It seems that the firm is on smooth road as its revenue is almost doubled since early 2014 i.e. up 4 percent or from $354 million to $369 million. Yet the firm has a lot of space to cover up. Let’s wait for the future to decide.
