ZTE Working on a Pair of Phablets

With ZTE reporting that it is projected to sell up to 50 million smartphones by the end of 2012, the company is looking to introduce two hybrid phone/tablets to the market in hopes of reversing a decline it has experienced in its handset-margins.

These devices, dubbed "phablets", are what ZTE is looking for in order to compete with the bigger names in the bussiness. Having spent years making cheap-end smartphones for other companies to slap their brand names on, ZTE is moving into the high-end market itself to take on Apple's iPhone and Samsung Galaxy models.

"We want to come up with the next generation of a Galaxy Note-type product - a combo product of handsets and tablets," Lv Qianhao, head of handset strategy at ZTE, told Reuters.

The Samsung Galaxy Note, launched by AT&T earlier this year, was the first mainstream device to be released as both a smartphone and a tablet. ZTE is now hoping to match the moderate success that Samsung experienced with the phablet by releasing its own hybrid smartphone/tablet later this year.

Source: Reuters