Who are the world's Tier 2 handset makers?

Burden's take: TCL is one of China's leading cell phone and television manufacturers. In 2004, TCL formed a joint venture with Alcatel (now Alcatel-Lucent), taking a majority stake. The JV did not prove successful and TCL purchased the remaining 45% of the JV. TCL began to have solid success selling low-cost handsets to European and Latin American regions.

In its home market of China, TCL faces a difficult battle growing market share in a highly crowded market of large international players, such as Nokia, and local startups. With the global downturn, TCL will have to struggle to both grow internationally and locally.