Nokia and ZTE to add to US smartphone choices
T-Mobile looks set to launch Lumia 710, while Chinese vendor is in talks with tier one carriers for LTE phones
Published: 8 December, 2011
READ MORE: US | Nokia | Handset
US consumers have long complained of their limited smartphone choices compared to their peers in Europe and Asia, but recently the situation has changed and a host of vendors are chasing the country's mobile data boom. Two new choices set to hit US shores early in the new year - the first Nokia WP7 handset, tipped to launch at T-Mobile USA next week, and a high end new range promised for the first quarter of 2012 by ZTE.
Nokia and TMo have sent out invitations to a media event to be held on Wednesday in New York City, promising "something exciting in the works", and using a design similar to that of WP7's distinctive tiles. The obvious conclusion is that the fourth US cellco is to be the first to offer Nokia's new Lumia flagships, which are already available in some European and other territories. It is vital for the Finnish vendor to make an impact in north America, where it has never thrived, and this was one of the motives for adopting a Microsoft OS rather than sticking with Symbian, which was virtually invisible in the US.
The handset maker would certainly have hoped for a launch with the larger AT&T, which has usually been the most favourable US cellco to its products, but TMo has a track record of taking a risk on new platforms - as it did when Android was new - thereby giving them a foothold and the hopes of netting the big two carriers later. Verizon Wireless indicated recently that it was in talks with Nokia for Lumia, but is likely to wait for an LTE version, having said this would be important to raise WP7's profile. Verizon will insist on support for its 4G network in most of the high end handsets it launches next year.
According to a report on the WPCentral blog, based on FCC documents related to device testing, T-Mobile will launch the midrange Lumia 710 first. This would indicate Nokia testing the US waters with a standard model, though it has pledged specifically tweaked devices for different US cellcos next year. These may well appear at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month.
Meanwhile, ZTE remains largely a vendor of featurephones and carrier branded handsets, but is expanding its business in smartphones and is promising a big assault on the US market next year. It may even get its first LTE handsets to the shelves before Apple or RIM, expecting to launch 4G models before midyear, according to Lixin Cheng, president of the company's north American region. "By 2015, we expect the US to be the largest market for handsets for ZTE," he told The Wall Street Journal, adding that the firm was in talks with all four national carriers about a high end Android or WP7 offering.
"With a similar feature set to the iPhone, ZTE can offer an alternative," Cheng said, particularly in supporting lower prices and subsidies. So far, ZTE's midmarket smartphones have only found their way to tier two US operators such as MetroPCS. Worldwide, the company shipped 18.5m handsets in the third quarter, to take fourth place in the OEM rankings.
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