ZTE is betting that its next two products will help continue the Chinese company’s rapid growth in the US.
ZTE introduced a new low-cost Android smartphone, the Grand X Max+, as well as a new Android-powered smart projector, the Spro 2.
The ZTE Grand X Max+ has a 6-inch HD display, 13-megapixel camera, and 16GB of memory and 2GB of RAM. Even more impressive is its price: The smartphone will be available for $199 off-contract on Cricket Wireless when it goes on sale later this year.
The company also previewed an updated version of its Android-powered smart projector, the Spro 2. The new version doubled its battery life over last year’s model, with three hours of streaming. Spro 2 will be available in the first quarter of 2015, with carrier and pricing details to be announced at a later date.
ZTE CEO Lixin Cheng also recapped the company’s 2014 progress, saying that it shipped more than a 100 million devices in the U.S. last year. Of those, Cheng said, 48 million were smartphones. ZTE currently has 20 million active users in the U.S.
The Chinese company has ambitious plans in the U.S. — namely luring users away from Samsung, Apple, HTC and other competitors. It has done this by focusing on prepaid users; Cheng said ZTE is now no. 2 in the U.S. prepaid market.
He added that the overall focus on increasing brand awareness in the U.S. has paid off: ZTE is one of the fastest-growing brands, with awareness growing from 1% to 16% in the last year.
-mashable