ZTE to boost India's handset shipments

ZTE Corp aims to have an annual handset shipment of more than 10 million units in India in the short run, said ZTE India's general manager.

Cui Liangjun, general manager of ZTE India, said the company has shipped more than 40 million mobile phones in India so far.

"We have seen rapid growth of ZTE's terminal business in India in recent years," Cui said.

ZTE entered the Indian market in 1999, but the company's device business did not really take off until 2005, when it sold 1 million handsets in the country.

The Indian market is one of the largest in the world, with the number of telecom subscribers second only to China's.

The number of mobile subscribers in India rose to more than 900 million this year from about 4 million in 2001. The pace of addition of new mobile users has sometimes surpassed China. India is adding around 6 million to 7 million mobile users a month.

"ZTE plans to become one of the top three mobile phone vendors in the Indian market," Cui said.

He added that smartphones will become mainstream mobile phones in India and ZTE plans to provide more customized, high-quality smartphones to Indian customers.

ZTE is the world's fourth-largest mobile phone maker and the fifth-largest telecom gear maker.