ZTE said its first-quarter net profit rose 16 percent, bolstered by a strong showing in mobile device and terminal sales. The company also said it sustained strong sales growth in Europe and the United States.
The Chinese vendor reported first-quarter net profit of $19.4 million in the quarter, up from $16.8 million in the year-ago period. ZTE said total operating revenue clocked in at $2.3 billion, up from $2.02 billion in the year-ago period. ZTE said revenue from its carrier networks segment inched up 1.57 percent.
However, the company said sales revenue in its mobile terminal division--which includes handsets and data cards--surged by 51 percent from the year-ago period. ZTE said sales were fueled by 3G, GSM and CDMA handsets as well as data cards. The company did not reveal how many handsets it shipped in the quarter. ZTE said earlier this year that it expects the number of smartphones it sells to rise to 12 million this year, up from 3 million in 2010.
Jeff Ji, executive vice president and general manager of ZTE USA, told FierceWireless in March that in 2010 ZTE counted 14 product stock-keeping units in the North American market, including 11 in the U.S. He said the company expects to double that to at least 28 North American SKUs this year.
ZTE--which was the world's No. 4 handset maker in the fourth quarter, according to research firm IDC--will sell handsets through T-Mobile USA and AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) this year, though Ji declined to say if they will be smartphones. Ji did confirm that next month Alltel will launch multiple ZTE products.
For more:
- see this release
- see this Reuters article
- see this Dow Jones Newswires article (sub. req.)
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