Competition in the global GSM equipment sector is set to fire up in 2009 as the market recovers from a slow down caused by the current financial climate.
According to a new report from Frost & Sullivan, ZTE is set to replace Nokia Siemens as the number three GSM supplier in 2009 in newly added markets.
The report said GSM and UMTS still dominate the global mobile market, accounting for 83.5% of global mobile subscribers.
Ericsson (31%), Huawei (27%) and Nokia-Siemens (16%) have held the top three slots for market share during the year, while ZTE at (15%) and Alcatel-Lucent (9%) made it to the top five.
The report shows that ZTE has registered the fastest GSM shipment growth for three consecutive years, with a compound annual growth rate of 120%.
Earlier this month, ZTE claimed that it was set to attain the number 1 position in the CDMA vendor segment by 2010 with a market share of 29.3 %. For this year the company has a 25 % market share, second behind only Alcatel-Lucent.
Meanwhile ZTE boosted its first-half net profit by 40% after more than doubling its domestic revenue in China's 3G boom.
The Chinese vendor recorded a net profit of 780 million yuan (€80.1 million) as profit grew 40.4% to 27.7 billion yuan.
The company shipped 75,000 CDMA base stations – its highest ever, and 50% more than it sold in the whole of 2008. Sales to carriers grew 46.2% and handset revenue rose 29.8%.
“The group will continue to implement the strategies of differentiation and cost leadership in the second half of the year,” chairman Hou Weigui said.
In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, ZTE warned that the group's second-half result will be “affected to a certain measure” by the ongoing global financial crisis, and could also be vulnerable to currency fluctuations.