Both Huawei and ZTE reported solid revenue growth for 2010 in their preliminary year-end financial results, an indication that the Chinese companies are not slowing down in their quests to compete with Western vendors.
Huawei, the larger of the two, said it expects 2010 revenue to rise 28 percent to $28 billion. Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), the world's largest network equipment vendor, ended 2010 with $31.1 billion in sales. Huawei said its figures are unaudited and that it could not provide any more details; Huawei is privately held.
According to Reuters, Huawei said that its terminal sales for 2010--which include handsets and USB modems--grew 22 percent to $4.5 billion. Both Huawei and ZTE have experienced mild success so far in the U.S. handset market, but have yet to make major inroads in the U.S. infrastructure market.
ZTE reported its own preliminary results Friday, and also capped the year on a high note. The company, which like Huawei is based in Shenzhen, said that net revenue for 2010 clocked in at $10.62 billion, up 16.7 percent from 2009. ZTE said that net profit attributable to shareholders grew 32.4 percent to $491.4 million.
ZTE's handset business is enjoying significant growth. According to research firm IDC, ZTE claimed the global No. 4 handset spot in the fourth quarter. ZTE muscled its way into the rankings by shipping 16.8 million units in the quarter, up 76.8 percent from the year-ago period--the highest growth rate of any of the biggest handset makers except for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which sold 16.2 million iPhones, an 86.2 percent increase from the year-ago quarter.
For more:
- see this Reuters article
- see this ZTE release
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