ORLANDO, FLA. —
China-based supplier ZTE, which is
increasing its focus on branded rather than white-label mobile
devices, is coming to the show with what it hopes will
be its first U.S.-market smartphone and its first U.S. tablet.
In all, the company hopes to double the number of
SKUs available this year in the U.S. to 28 or more from
14, most of which are white-label products, and move
up-market from low- to mid-end phones.
New product will include a mobile hot spot for carrier
Alltel, joining a ZTE mobile hot spot available from Verizon.
Both hot spots connect to up to five Wi-Fi devices at a time.
Also at CTIA, the company will show its Light tablet
with 10-inch screen, Android 3.0, and third-quarter
launch date in foreign markets.
The company’s first three smartphones, shown at the
Mobile World Congress, include the Skate, which the
company hopes to bring to the U.S. The phone is thin,
weighs 4.2 ounces, and features 4.3-inch touchscreen,
Android 2.3 OS, 800MHz processor, Wi-Fi, Adreno
200 GPU to support high-definition video, 5-megapixel
camera, Bluetooth, assisted GPS capability, hardware
compass and G-sensor. The version shown at MWC operates
in foreign 3G HSDPA networks.
