ZTE (0763) has big plans for 2013. The Chinese manufacturer has previously focused on low-end feature phones and smartphones, however in a move similar to rival Huawei(002502), ZTE is looking to attack the high-end market with a variety of devices. The company recently announced the Grand S smartphone, which is equipped with a 1080p full HD display and quad-core processor, and is scheduled to debut even more devices at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
“We would like to raise the percentage of mid- to high-range smartphones. That’s the direction we’re heading,” Lv Qianhao, head of ZTE’s handset strategy, said in an interview with Reuters, adding that the company expects to ship more than 50 million smartphones in 2013
ZTE is expected to announce two new smartphones at the annual trade show later this month, the Grand Memo and Grand Mozilla. The Memo is equipped with a 5.7-inch 720p display, 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, a 13-megapixel rear camera and Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.
The Grand Mozilla is expected to be ZTE’s first smartphone to be powered by Mozilla’s FireFox OS.
