15 July 2010, London - ZTE Corporation (“ZTE” - H share stock code: 00763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, and Three, have launched the ZTE Racer, a low cost Android 2.1 (Éclair) powered handset.
The Racer is the first Android handset in the UK from ZTE and is Three's first Android handset to break the £100 barrier, selling at £99.99.
"We're really excited to bring the ZTE Android smartphone into our range. Combining the power of Android and the strength of our 3G network, we're enabling more and more customers to get a great mobile internet experience at a price that's right for them," said David Kerrigan, Head of Internet Service, Three UK.
Android could account for the second highest market share of mobile operating systems by 2012, according to a recent report from Gartner. However, it can take over a year to develop a new smartphone which means that device manufacturers are struggling to keep up with developing Operating Systems (OS) and new devices are often launched with older versions of the OS.
"The Racer is ZTE's next step in making smartphones available to the UK market at prices affordable by the majority of consumers," said Mr. Wu Sa, Director of Mobile Device Operations, ZTE (UK) Ltd. "Mobile handsets using Android operating systems are taking a large share of the market and ZTE is investing in the innovative platform with Three to meet customer demand."
The Racer is a ZTE and Three co-branded handset that combines a 2.8” QVGA touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, 256 MB of internal memory, Bluetooth and 7.2Mbps HSDPA capabilities.
The handset is aimed at consumers who require access to a wide range of applications. The Android operating system (OS) allows users to download thousands of apps from the Android market with quicklink access to services including Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, Google Maps and Google Talk.
ZTE expects to increase its share of the UK carrier handset market from three percent in 2009 to eight percent in 2010. In Q2 this year alone, ZTE mobile devices sales in the UK passed the million unit mark for the first time.
For more information about the ZTE Racer handset, please visit: www.three.co.uk
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