ZTE skates into MWC with Android smartphone

BARCELONA, Spain--ZTE debuted its flagship Android-based smartphone, the ZTE Skate, at a press event in Barcelona, Spain. The smartphone will be commercially available in May.

Click here for details on the ZTE SkateThe ZTE Skate supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE at 900/1800/1900MHz and HSDPA/UMTS at 900/2100MHz, as well as Wi-Fi. The device has a 4.3-inch screen and runs Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android 2.3 platform. In addition, it is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera, A-GPS capability and an 800 MHz processor with an Adrena 200 graphics processing unit.

Executives from ZTE are bullish on their smartphone strategy, so much that they expect to sell 10 million smartphones in 2011, up from 2 million units in 2010.

In addition, ZTE executives said the company will focus more effort on the middle-to-high end market with devices targeted at the U.S., Europe and Japan because those are key markets for smartphone growth, they said. 

ZTE also showcased the Amigo Android slide-cover phone specifically designed for social networks, the Blade Android smartphone and the BREW MP handset, the F952, which uses the Wholesale Applications Communication standard.

Finally, the company debuted its second tablet, the Light 2. The 10-inch tablet supports Android 3.0 and will be launched in the third quarter of 2011.

According to research firm IDC, ZTE ranked No. 4 in handsets in the fourth quarter, nudging Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) down to No. 5 and pushing BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) out of the list of top five handset makers altogether. 

For more:
- see this release
- see this release
- see this Reuters article

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