It’s a story that many who are familiar with the wireless industry have heard time and time again. Asian companies like HTC, Huawei, and ZTE start out as mere handset makers who supply devices to operators who then go on and slap their logo on the bodies of said devices, along with a slew of their own operator branded software, but then after a few years of doing this said Asian companies want to branch out and start selling straight to consumers. First it was HTC, who many knew as the number one ODM (original design manufacturer) for Windows Mobile smartphones, transitioning into what’s now one of the top Android vendors currently on the market. Then it was Huawei, who was and is now becoming more recognized for their incredible ability to build budget devices that make smartphones accessible to people who could never before have dreamed of having a device that fit in their pocket that could also go online. Now it’s ZTE’s turn, and soon they’ll begin selling their wares directly to consumers in the UK, with the longer term goal being to “become a household name synonymous with high quality smartphones and tablets” says Wu Sa, Director of Mobile Device Operations, ZTE UK.
There’s a slight problem though. The UK market is notorious for having operators offer bleeding edge devices, locked to their networks of course, for as close to free as possible on a 2 year contract. The only reason to go unlocked would be to sign up for a cheaper SIM only plan with no commitment, but it isn’t really that much cheaper in the long run. There’s also the resell market, where your unlocked device would fetch more than something that’s locked, and then let’s not forget software updates, which usually come to unlocked devices first, and then operator devices at some arbitrary date.
We wish ZTE the best of luck, they deserve the attention they’ve been receiving thanks to hardware such as the ZTE Blade, which became the first decent Android device you could pick up for roughly 200 EUR and be able to say with a straight face that you enjoy.