ZTE targets No 1 post in smartphone market in 3 years

MANILA, Philippines - Chinese mobile devices maker ZTE Corp. aims to become the number  one smartphone provider in the Philippine market in three years.   

“Our target is to be number one in the Philippine smartphone market,”  ZTE Corp. regional managing director for Southeast Asia Jeff Zhou Fang  said in a press conference yesterday.   

“Within three years, we want to achieve this target,” he said further.    

The company intends to be the top provider of smartphones in the country by strengthening the ZTE brand here.    

As part of efforts to strengthen the ZTE brand not just in the Philippines but in Southeast Asia as well, the firm has partnered with  Houston Rockets to become the official smartphone provider of the NBA  team.   

“The partnership with Houston Rockets is good especially in the  Philippines where there are many basketball fans,” Jimmy Go, president  and chief executive officer of the local distributor of ZTE mobile  phones MSI-ECS Philippines Inc., said.   

Fang said there is an opportunity for ZTE here as the Philippines  currently accounts for just 24 percent of the Southeast Asian  smartphone market.    Go noted that smartphone penetration in the country remains at a low 20 percent.   

“Philippines’ smartphone penetration should be in the range of 50  percent. It is going to grow because of the way we do things,” he  said.   

He noted that ZTE is offering affordable smartphones which could compete  with products of well-known brands.   

“The nice thing about ZTE is there are several price points. We have  the right products for the Philippine market,” he said.   

Four new ZTE smartphones launched at the event were the ZTEV795 priced  at almost P3,000, the ZTE V829 which costs almost P6,000, ZTE V967S which is below P10,000 and ZTE 969 with the price ranging from P11,000  to P12,000.   

ZTE is the fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world.   

Apart from mobile phones, the firm produces tablets, mobile broadband  modems and hotspots as well as family desktop integration terminals.