ZTE Corporation held a press conference in Beijing,
China earlier today to announce the establishment of a new subsidiary called
ZTE Intelligent Terminal Co. Ltd (also known as ZTE Terminal China) to carry
independent operations in its home country. Cheng Lixin, who is the Senior VP
of ZTE Corporation and CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices, will be serving as the
chairman of the ZTE Terminal China while Bai Boren will be its president. At
the press conference, he also revealed that the Axon M9 is the next flagship
phone from the company.
The year 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of ZTE
Mobile. The popularity of the brand has declined in the Chinese market in the
recent years. Last year, the company had ranked eighth in the global smartphone
market. According to Lixin, the major reason for this decline is its lack of
focus on the Chinese market. Earlier, the ZTE was shipping more devices in
China than overseas market, but its sales began to decline as the competition
increased.
Moreover, the smartphone market in China encountered
a year-on-year decline of 0.4 percent in 2017. GfK market research firm had
previously forecasted that the China’s mobile phone market in 2018 will achieve
annual retail sales of 449 million units — a 4 percent year-on year decline. It
is speculated that the Chinese smartphone market may further decline in the
next two years. However, ZTE is seeing this as an opportunity to grow in the
home market.
According to Boren, after establishing the ZTE
Terminal China, the parent company will make more investments in its Chinese
wing. ZTE will be providing it with products, channels, brands, talents and all
kinds of support to expand and promote ZTE mobile phone brand in China. Lixin
has done a lot of research and met with many industry experts to completely
understand the domestic phone market. He aims to make ZTE a mainstream brand in
the domestic market within three years. He added that the ZTE Terminal China
will have no direct relationship with Nubia as it will be functioning
independently.
Lixin also confirmed that the ZTE Terminal China
will be launching the Axon M9 flagship phone in September this year. The
handset will be aimed towards the high-end market. However, he did not reveal
any information on the specifications of the Axon M9 flagship.
Given the M series branding and launch timing, the
M9 could be the successor of the Axon M foldable smartphone. Or it could be an
entirely new model. It seems that starting with Axon M9, ZTE Terminal China
would be working on regaining the popularity of the brand in domestic market.
