ZTE, the Chinese handset major, announcing that 20% of its global sales are being targeted from India and the company soon would be entering the retail market by the end of this year with its own independent brand.
Mr DK Ghose, ZTE India’s Chairman and Managing Director, reported, “We have reached 100 million sales globally. Out of that, 16 million handsets have been sold in India so far. The company is looking at further enhancing this to 20 percent of its global handset sales in 2008. India is a key focus market for us and we want to further our market share by entering the retail handset market here.”
Nearly 3.5 million handsets have been sold by ZTE India during the current quarter of this fiscal year. Approximately 8 million sets were sold by the company in India in 2007. India gave ZTE a revenue of $700 mn, which included both handset and network equipment sales from the global revenue of $7 billion.
Mr Ghose also informed, “ZTE will roll out all its products in India in the retail market including a $20 to $25 (sub-Rs 1000) entry level phone. With the mobile operators gearing up for 3G services, the company also plans to sell its 3G range here. The pricing will be disclosed later.”
BSNL, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Spice and Airtel are included in the company’s existing bundling customers. Around ten millions sets out of total 16 million sets sold by the company in India, were CDMA sets. However, in the future the company wants that sales should constitute 60% sales of CDMA sets and 40% sales by the GSM sets
