ZTE will soon be bringing their smart phones to the UK with their own name on the case rather than that of another company. The Chinese phone maker has previously made cheap mobile phones for others, with notable examples including Orange’s San Francisco, Boston and Monte Carlo.

The change is due to financial considerations, with ZTE teaming up with distributors Brightpoint to get the ball rolling. They expect to “become a household name synonymous with high-quality smart phones and tablets.”
They may have been inspired by the success of HTC, who recently switched from making handsets for others to releasing under their own brand. Some of HTC’s own brand mobile phones have received rave reviews from industry and users alike. ZTE claim that they will be the world’s third biggest phone maker by 2015, with only Nokia and Samsung selling more.

ZTE was founded in Shenzhen in 1985, and rose from a group of state-owned enterprises with ties to the government’s Ministry of Aerospace and specialized in telecoms. One of the reasons it hasn’t been bought out is because it’s partly owned by the Chinese government; a big global player and potentially a tricky business partner.

Their latest two Orange-branded mobile phones, the Stockholm and the Barcelona, both run Android 2.2 and are close to release. The Barcelona is the successor to Orange’s San Francisco and is split into a physical keyboard and 2.6-inch capacitive touch screen. The camera is 3.2-megapixel, but doesn’t have a flash. The phone looks a little like BlackBerry’s Bold 9900, with notable latest features including Signal Boost which taps into your own WiFi network to boost your phone signal for calls and texts, and Orange Gestures which allows access to menu options by making a brief physical motion.
It will be interesting to monitor developments in the ZTE camp over the coming months!