PARTNER INTERVIEW

1. How is the current market performance of ZTE Mobile Devices in the global market?

Supported by the company, ZTE Mobile Devices has been advancing the development of brands, products, and channels. In 2021, the total shipment of ZTE terminal devices has exceed 100 million units, achieving a year-on-year growth of 60%, with the year-on-year growth of 150% in the Chinese market and 50% in the overseas markets.

In terms of mobile Internet products, ZTE Mobile Devices plays a leading role in the world. Securing the largest market share of 5G CPEs, we have become the No.1 brand in the CPE market.

2. Under the environment of the repeated epidemics, where is the confidence of ZTE Mobile Devices to rise against the trend? How is the expectations for the future like?

Both the ongoing pandemic and volatile global supply chain have indeed posed great challenges to our operations. But as you know, ZTE has been developing its business across the globe for over 20 years, with a number of branches established in more than 100 countries. Meanwhile, we have a strong supply chain system. All of these lay a solid foundation for us to address uncertainties and risks in the international market.

Aiming to improve its product competitiveness, ZTE Mobile Devices is committed to “InnovAction,” namely, innovations and actions. To regain our position as a mainstream terminal supplier, we have innovated in technology, and more importantly, put innovations into commercial use over the years. For example, we take the lead in applying the under-display camera technology and computational photography to smartphones, and lead the industry to open up a new track. Along with other players in the industry, we are together bringing better services and experience to consumers. With InnovAction, ZTE’s smartphones have already been widely recognized by the industry and consumers.

What’s more, we have redefined the positioning of our brands, and developed the strategy of building the “1+2+N” ecosystem. Our brand image thus has been significantly enhanced among targeted consumers and markets.

Our goal remains clear in the future, that is, to maintain the momentum of business growth. As mentioned before, in the next few years, we expect to achieve a year-on-year growth of over 200% in the Chinese market, and over 50% in the overseas markets.

3. At this MWC, ZTE demonstrated its new high-power 5G mmW pre-research technology and products. What breakthroughs has this technology brought? What difficulties and opportunities do you think the development of 5G technology is facing now?

To accelerate the deployment of 5G mmW, ZTE has been continuously testing to gradually improve the wireless transmission rate of terminal devices. At present, the transmission rate of ZTE high-power 5G mmW CPE has exceeded 10Gbps, enabling the wireless transmission rate of terminal devices to surpass computer hardware and marking a great leap forward in the history of Internet communications.

The device showcased on MWC 2022 is equipped with the new Qualcomm SD X65 chip, supporting dual link between Sub6G and MMW, and can further improve the frequency band and Internet fluency. To ensure heat dissipation capability during the process of high-rate transmission, MBB team of ZTE worked together with the team of Qualcomm to conduct joint pilot study and concept design for half a year. As a result, new heat-conducting material was integrated into the product design, improving the heat dissipation efficiency by 20%. Besides, time-sharing CA technology and a new generation of micro controlled power algorithm was developed to simultaneously achieve better heat dissipation and signal coverage of the devices.

At present, 5G is still at the early stage of development. Although consumer products represented by 5G smartphones have been well developed, the application of 5G products in other fields has not been popularized on a large scale generally, which is the main problem faced by the current development of 5G technology.

4. ZTE announced that its global shipment of 5G MBB (mobile broadband) products has exceeded 1 million units in this MWC. What is the level of this achievement in the industry? What do you think is the main advantage of ZTE in achieving this result?

ZTE has been committed to MBB for 17 years and has powerful strength in the field. Securing the largest market share of 5G CPEs, ZTE has become the No.1 brand in the CPE market. Up till now, the global cumulative shipment of ZTE 5G MBB devices exceeds 1 million, which proving our predominance in the field of global mobile Internet through practical actions.

In recent years, the smart terminal industry has undergone great changes, many challenges were brought to globalization. However, ZTE firmly pursues industry evolution driven by technological innovation and accumulates extensive technological experiences and innovation capabilities, to make the steady progress going global and make the innovation a part of our DNA by continuously promoting the commercial use of cutting-edge 5G terminal technologies.

Under the strategy of all-around terminals, ZTE keeps strengthening the “InnovAction” in the field of technology, continuously making the cutting-edge technical innovation and strengthening the “Action” to promote commercial use. In terms of core technologies, ZTE Mobile Devices vigorously develop in-house designed chipsets and strives to improve their R&D capabilities and innovation level. At present, ZTE has submitted 4,400 applications for chip patent, including 1,950 authorized ones approximately, with the in-house designed chips for terminal devices covering different fields including personal and home communications, IoV, and industrial surveillance.

To remain competitive in the market, in addition to improvement of our products and technologies, it is also essential for us to enhance branding, channel development, and market strategies. Therefore, we will continuously improve the brand image, stay committed to meticulous channel management in the Chinese market, and focus on key overseas countries with tailored strategies. All these efforts are made to maintain a solid growth in global business.

5. How does ZTE create unique advantages in mobile phone products? What are the future plans in terms of handset uniqueness and competitiveness.

To be specific, we will enhance product competitiveness from four aspects. First of all, we will improve product design to value individual and stylish personality and targets young consumers. Secondly, following the prevailing trend in photography, we will further innovate in smartphone cameras and lead new trends in computational photography. Thirdly, we will give full play to our advantages in 5G technology to address the pain points of consumers. Lastly, we will strengthen OS upgrade and interaction optimization to improve user experience. In addition, by continuously improving the experience of multi-screen interaction and connection, ZTE strives to achieve the IoT centered on smartphones.

In this era, innovation is regarded as the main driving force. In the future, based on our advantages in R&D and innovation, ZTE Mobile Devices will continue to drive value innovation of consumer business to meet various customer needs.

Firstly, as a pioneer in using fusion computational photography, ZTE will continue to make breakthroughs in the field of mobile photography. We will coordinate our resources across different dimensions, including the cloud, channel, edge computing, and terminal devices, and make full use of the network computing power, to continuously improve mobile photography and provide more exciting user experience.

Secondly, as a pioneer in developing smartphones with under-display cameras, ZTE Mobile Devices always takes a leading position in the fast iteration of this technology. We will further improve screen integration and display effect, and optimize the front camera to bring consumers revolutionary full-screen visual experience.

Finally, we will leverage our advantages in 5G to further improve AI-based communications in different scenarios through the “1+2+N” ecosystem. In such fields as mobile officing, e-sports, and live streaming, we will provide intelligent and professional terminal network solutions. With scenario-based applications, these solutions can bring better 5G experiences to all users.