ZTE, a Chinese multinational, last week announced its new smartphone Blade A2 Plus at an event in New Delhi. While it is difficult to recall a brand like ZTE in India due to its early days in the smartphone industry, the company has been in the hardware segment for quite some time now. If not smartphones, it is likely that you have come across ZTE products in the form of wireless routers, smart projectors and other hardware equipment. However, the company didn’t make any impactful additions to its smartphone segment at least in India. While there have been a bunch of new launches outside India, ZTE now plans to take the same approach in India as well.
Also, SeeZTE Blade A2 Plus is now available for sale on Flipkart for Rs 11,999
Sachin Batra, Chief Marketing Officer, ZTE India, said toThe Mobile Indian, ” We are getting ready to manufacture smartphones in India and if the thing goes according to the plan we will be a part of Make in India initiate by March 2017.” He further added, “Initially, we will focus on assembling the smartphones in India but going forward full-fledged manufacturing plant is on the cards.”
As far as the device strategy is concerned Sachin said, “Going forward ZTE will now be more consistent in the smartphone space launching at least two smartphones every quarter and our next smartphone for the Indian market is almost ready. We will be unveiling is quite soon.”
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Talking about the price bracket in which ZTE plans to launch their future devices Sachin said, ” we will play inthe price range of Rs 6,999 – Rs 19,999.” It seems to be a natural price segment for ZTE given the fact that most of the smartphoneplayers in the Indianmarket are focussing on this segment only. However, this is also the price segment where the amount of competition hikes up with every smartphone launched. Launching a smartphone in this segment will mean that ZTE is directly competing with the likes of Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo, ASUS and others.
Moreover, ZTE is also eyeing the offline market for its future smartphones. The company is already in talks with ‘Hotspot’ for retailing smartphones offline. Further, the Chinese handset manufacturer will also emphasise on providing premium customer service. As of now, ZTE has about 350+ service centres spread across the country and Sachin confirmed that the company is putting in a lot of effort to offer the best service possible to its customers.
While tapping the smartphone industry so late might bounce back, but it’s always better late than never. What do you think? Will you buy a ZTE smartphone right now or sometime in future? Let us know in the comments section below.