ZTE passes HTC to become the 4th largest smartphone manufacturer on the planet

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ZTE passes HTC to become the 4th largest smartphone manufacturer on the planet
Quick! Name the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer on earth after the third quarter of 2012. ZTE? You're right and we know you only knew that because you read the headline first. A better question is, who is number five? HTC? Nope. Only .1% separates ZTE from RIM and you know that once BlackBerry 10 launches in the first quarter of 2013, ZTE is going to drop back. In the second quarter, ZTE finished in 5th place, behind HTC. The latter dropped behind both ZTE and RIM in the latest report from IDC, a measure of how difficult things have become for the one time high flying handset manufacturer.

Still, we shouldn't poo-poo this achievement because it is quite remarkable considering that the HTC One X holds a place at the dining room table with the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Apple iPhone 5. Even the casual smartphone fan could name HTC as a major manufacturer of smartphones and most likely could name a recent handset model made by the Taiwan based firm. Can you name a recently released ZTE handset?

Looking at the numbers, ZTE shipped 7.5 million units in Q3 and while initially sold mainly in China, 35% of the company's smartphones were shipped out of the country in Q3, many to North America. Last year, the company increased its smartphone shipments by fourfold to 15 million units making the company the fastest growing smartphone manufacturer on the planet after Apple.

ZTE's name recently came up in regard to an investigation conducted by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence which said that the Chinese company could be involved in conducting acts of espionage against the U.S., an accusation that was denied by ZTE.

source: ZTE via AndroidCentral

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