China’s ZTE Pairs Lower-Profile Approach With Global Ambitions





ZTE’s booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

ZTE
Last year, China’s object of great smartphone hype was Xiaomi Corp. This year, it’s Huawei Technologies Co. And all of that is just fine with ZTE Corp., the Shenzhen, China-based handset manufacturer that has outsold both of those companies in the U.S., and is setting its sights on the No. 3 position behind Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in the lucrative market.

While lower-profile than its better-known domestic rivals, ZTE has carved out a steady, quiet niche in the crowded and competitive smartphone market—and it says that a coming global economic slowdown could boost its fortunes even further.

“You don’t necessarily have to make a lot of noise for people to get to know you,” says Waiman Lam, vice president for global mobile and technology at ZTE, in an interview. ZTE started out primarily as a white-label brand, making no-nonsense smartphones for carrier partners, before deciding to make a name for itself, slapping the ZTE logo on more and more of its devices.

To build its brand, it has bet aggressively on sports sponsorships, backing several National Basketball Association teams, including last year’s champions the Golden State Warriors, and sponsoring teams in region-specific favorites like European club soccer, Japanese baseball and Australian rugby.

But another secret to the company’s success, executives say, is its market positioning.ZTE executives are unabashed about pushing an “affordable premium” model, which they say puts ZTE at an advantage to Apple, Samsung and, increasingly, Huawei.

“It’s companies like ZTE that are making consumers aware that you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to get a good experience,” says Mr. Lam, and with signs of global recession looming and handsets looking increasingly similar, that could position ZTE for strong growth. The company had a strong 2015, outpacing the global market to boost smartphone shipments by 16% to 56 million units.

In the U.S., ZTE now ranks behind Apple, Samsung and LG Electronics Inc. as the No. 4 vendor. It says its brand awareness is rising in the U.S., with about one-third of surveyed consumers familiar with its brand. It’s also increasing its focus on Japan, Australia and Europe, where it still relies heavily on white-label devices for sales. Jacky Zhang, the company’s senior vice president and head of mobile devices in Europe and Asia-Pacific, says he’s fine with Shenzhen-based Huawei getting all the hype.

ZTE’s plan is to outmaneuver Huawei by undercutting its aggressive crosstown rival on price. “ZTE is committed to ‘affordable premium’ in Europe, and with Europe’s economy not doing well and Huawei’s strategy of selling at a high cost, we have a great opportunity,” Mr. Zhang said.

ZTE says it’s also poised to expand globally thanks to a broader sales network than some of its domestic rivals, and its portfolio of 16,000 patents, three-quarters of which are tied to mobile devices, according to Mr. Zhang. The patent portfolio allows it to expand into developed markets without facing patent lawsuits or hefty licensing fees, he said.
Very important to their gloabal ambitions, and why Xiaomi has bought patents from MSFT.
“Every advantage that Huawei has, we have too,” Mr. Zhang says.

A spokesman for Huawei said the company’s policy was not to comment on rivals, but added that Huawei had a full range of products and price points. Aggressive pricing means a lower bottom line, as ZTE executives are quick to acknowledge. Mr. Lam said thatwhile it was hard for anyone not named Apple to turn a profit on smartphones, the company wasn’t overly focused with racking up big profit for the time being. “We just need to focus on gaining market share,” he said.

jfieb, Is there any color to be found on how things went at this panel?

Yes there is,

here if the Sensory BLog entry made from that time in Barcelona. I will put the whole thing here

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POSTS TAGGED ‘SMART VOICE ALLIANCE’
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS DAY 1

March 3, 2015

It feels like I had a whole week’s worth of the trade show wrapped into one day! By the time mid week hits, I’ll surely be ready to head home! Here are some of the highlights from the first day of Mobile World Congress 2015:

• First a word about Catalonia. That’s where Barcelona is…in the heart of Catalonia, a province of Spain. Don’t expect delayed meetings, inefficiencies, relaxed long lunches or anything like that. The Catalonians have the precision of Germans (to continue my gross stereotyping!), and my experience with one of the largest trade shows on the planet is that it’s going off without a hitch! I picked up my badge at the airport in a five-minute line that was well staffed and moved rapidly. I could just about walk into the show yesterday morning. The subways and trains though crowded and overheated ran extremely smoothly. Kudos to the show management for pulling off such a difficult feat!
• I’d be remiss without mentioning the Galaxy S6. Samsung invited us to the launch and of course they continue to use Sensory in a relationship that has grown quite strong over the years. Samsung continues to innovate with the Edge, and other products that everyone is talking about. It’s amazing how far Apple took the mantle in the first iPhone and how companies like Samsung and the Android system seem to now be leading the charge on innovation!
• My favorite product that doesn’t feature Sensory technology that I bumped into was an electronic jump rope. They put sensors in the handles and a visual display shows across the field of the rope, kind of like those clocks that rapidly flash LED’s as the pendulum quickly moves back and forth in order to display the time. I talked with Alex Woo from Tangram and he said they were going to launch a crowdfunding campaign. I gave Alex a demo of our TrulyHandsfree with jump ropers jumping and all the show noise and of course it worked flawlessly. It would be really cool to be able to ask things like “How much time,” “How many jumps,” “What’s my heart rate,” or “How many calories burned” and so on, and the display would make voice control so much more functional!

Use this as a mental model of what can be done with Voice once its on the device!

• We had a couple of partnership announcements here at the show, supporting both Qualcomm and Synopsys – both great partners to add to our support mix, and always nice when its customers driving our platform directions. The Qualcomm platform is interesting because it’s not their standard platform for 3rd parties to support. As far as I know they opened it up to Sensory and ONLY Sensory, and already we are seeing much interest!

commentary, we already know well of the keep it on the AP. Its on QUIKs slide and has been for a long time. Not new. Power figures?

• Last night ZTE had a press party to indoctrinate Sensory and NXP into its Smart Voice Alliance. ZTE is really putting some forward thinking into the user experience and their research shows how much people want a voice interface but how dissatisfying the current state of the art actually is. Sensory’s hoping to change that! We’ll make one of our biggest announcements in history over the next month… and I’ll let you in on the secret (it’s on our website already!) We call it TrulyNatural, and it will be the highest accuracy large vocabulary embedded speech engine that the world has ever seen!

Yeah, its bold, but if you read a LOT its not an exaggeration................

please use these last few post to support the idea that digressiver reading is a LOT of FUN and you get something back for the time spent on it.

Sorry about the underling, once I start I can't make it stop.

Does ZTE, # 8 in the world even know who Sensory Inc is?

Sure they do....

• Sensory blog post..

GOOD TECHNOLOGY EXISTS – SO WHY DOES SPEECH RECOGNITION STILL FALL SHORT?
March 30, 2015

At Mobile World Congress, I participated in ZTE's mobile voice panel. ZTE presented data researched in China that basically said people want to use speech recognition on their phones, but they don’t use it because it doesn’t work well enough. I have seen similar data on US mobile phone users, and the automotive industry has also shown data supporting the high level of dissatisfaction with speech recognition.

In fact, when I bought my new car last year I wanted the state of the art in speech recognition to make navigation easier… but sadly I’ve come to learn that the system used in my Lexus just doesn’t work well — even the voice dialing doesn’t work well.

As an industry, I feel we must do better than this, so in this blog I’ll provide my two-cents as to why speech recognition isn’t where it should be today, even when technology that works well exists:

1. Many core algorithms, especially the ones provided to the automotive industry are just not that good. It’s kind of ironic, but the largest independent supplier of speech technologies actually has one of the worst performing speech engines. Sadly, it’s this engine that gets used by many of the automotive companies, as well as some of the mobile companies.
2. Even many of the good engines don’t work well in noise. In many tests, Googles speech recognition would come in as tops, but when the environment gets noisy even Google fails. I use my Moto X to voice dial while driving (at least I try to). I also listen to music while driving. The “OK Google Now” trigger works great (kudo’s to Sensory!), but everything I say after that gets lost and I see an “it’s too noisy” message from Google. I end up turning down the radio to voice dial or use Sensory's voice dial app, because Sensory always works… even when it’s noisy!
3. Speech Application designs are really bad. I was using the recognizer last week on a popular phone. The room was quiet, I had a great internet connection and the recognizer was working great but as a user I was totally confused. I said “set alarm for 4am” and it accurately transcribed “set alarm for 4am” but rather than confirm that the alarm was set for 4am, it asked me what I wanted to do with the alarm. I repeated the command, it accurately transcribed again and asked one more time what I wanted to do with the alarm. Even though it was recognizing correctly it was interfacing so poorly with me that I couldn’t tell what was happening, and it didn’t appear to be doing what I asked it to do. Simple and clear application designs can make all the difference in the world.
4. Wireless connections are unreliable. This is a HUGE issue. If the recognizer only works when there’s a strong Internet connection, then the recognizer is going to fail A GREAT DEAL of the time. My prediction – over the next couple of years, the speech industry will come to realize that embedded speech recognition offers HUGE advantages over the common cloud based approaches used today – and these advantages exist in not just accuracy and response time, but privacy too!

Deep learning nets have enabled some amazing progress in speech recognition over the last five years. The next five years will see embedded recognition with high performance noise cancelling and beamforming coming to the forefront, and Sensory will be leading this charge… and just like how Sensory led the way with the “always on” low-power trigger, I expect to see Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and others follow suit.


So he has a bias, that is the same as QUIKs, but he does say very clearly what he sees. Imagine how the recognition has to be good for Mandarin and others for China.

Since QUIK came out with the hardcode Sensory announced they are working with Philips IP for better noise cancellation and just maybe QUIK had or will use these algos on the Eos.
It is not a bad question to ask at some point, but I just know QUIK will have what they need in this regard.


Any key here I got from reading too much?

Yes, neural networks, have been Sensory Inc approach since day one, their focus from the start was keep it on the device. Neural network are not just lower power by some 20 % or so they
are lower power by an order a magnitude over other approaches. 10X better.

Bob S., ZTE is already primed from their research to add a good voice recognition solution to their flagships and they are 8 in the world.
Can you sign them up?

Thanks in advance.

Looking forward to MWC in :Shanghai.


with devices like the star2 ZTE...

So who sold the voice stuff to ZTE anyway?

Yup, you got it it was Bob S.,

Reuters
Dec 23, 2014 - "For ZTE's newest flagship device the goal was to offer superior voice ... ZTE and Audience are to Advanced Voice," said Robert Schoenfield, 

Bob can you get the # 8 global OEM to use the Eos? Thanks in advance. Are those familiar China algos ready for MWC SHaghai?

Five Chinese brands that will be household names next year
The Drum-1 hour ago
In March, The Drum reported that China's 100 most valuable brands grew ... homegrown brands are now set on international domination. ... Apparently ZTE is already one of the top five smartphonemanufacturers in the world.

Huawei & ZTE are on this list. see what ZTE is doing to be branded in Europe....



Asian smartphone producers dominate global market, according to ...
Asian Correspondent-20 minutes ago
Asian smartphone producers dominate global market, according to ... with Chinese brands dominating the list – eight of the 12 companies ...

 

1. 
   
2. 
   

   
   

   
   

   Eight China smartphone vendors in top 12

   
   

   
   

   Eight of the top 12 smartphone companies in Q1 are headquartered in China with an Indian company (Micromax) making the list for the first time, says IC Insights.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   Gionee, a China-based smartphone supplier, just missed making the 1Q16 top 12 ranking after shipping 4.8 million handsets in the quarter.

   
   

   Seven of the top twelve companies are forecast to register 2016 growth rates of 6% or less while the other five companies are expected to each log 29% or better increases.

   
   

   The top two suppliers, Samsung and Apple, are each forecast to show a slight decline in smartphone shipments this year.

   
   

   http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2016/06/419_206822.html

   look the nice chart over.....
   

   
   

   Three companies are expected to drop out of the top 12 ranking this year – Sony, Microsoft, and Coolpad.

   
   

   These three companies saw their 1Q16 sales of smartphones drop to 3.4, 2.3, and 4.0 million, respectively.

   
   

   Coolpad’s smartphone sales dropped by 44% in 2015 to only 25.5 million units. Moreover, Xiaomi, a real “high-flyer” in smartphone sales in 2013 and 2014 saw its growth slow to 16% last year.

   
   

   While a 16% growth rate is still very commendable, its sales of about 71 million smartphones last year was well below the company’s earlier stated goal of shipping 100 million smartphones in 2015.

   
   

   Although Microsoft announced it intends to sell its non-smartphone business later this year, its early 2016 Lumia smartphones shipments put it on a path to sell less than 15 million units in 2016.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   We have made substantial progress in strategic Asian markets this year, and we are now engaged with most of the top-tier smartphone OEMs in China.

   
   Bob S, sweep up in CHina for us. Thanks in advance.
4. 
   

   jfiebWell-Known Member

   
   

   keep that list at hand
   
   useful cc snips
   
   During the last quarter the net number of significant OEM customer engagements increased by approximately 20%. This increase was driven by three new smartphone engagements. Two of these engagements are with top-ten worldwide smartphone OEMs, and the third is with a rapidly growing top-ten smartphone OEM in China. As a result, the potential value of our engagements increased substantially more than 20%.
   
   
   
   
   x
   Andy Pease
   
   Yes, so when you look at the Smartphone market, I would say that we believe when we talk about strategic Asian markets our belief is that there is really two geographic strategic markets in Asia and that would be Korea and China. So definitely what we have made significant progress with and this is where Bob has been instrumental in that -- if you read his Bio, he was actually based in Shanghai, that penetrating the top tier Smartphone people in China, is an absolute must for us and we are making great progress on that being. As far as the timing goes, there is really only a couple of Smartphone people that have very regular product introduction and that’s the top guys. And you could argue that the A company really they release their new iPhone when they are ready. But clearly the other top tier guy has some very regular design cycles, that’s not true of the other top tier guys and that they seem to want to release things based on other market variants and which kind of features they are ready to introduce.
   
   Krishna Shankar
   
   Okay [Multiple Speakers].
   
   Andy Pease
   
   Actually you may want Bob to try in there because Bob has been living this for many years, and maybe you want to add something to this Bob?
   
   Bob Schoenfield
   
   Yes, thanks Andy. And just following on Andy's comments, it's interesting with the OEMs -- the top tier OEMs in China, where they are gaining share not only domestically but we are starting to see it with their export initiatives and it's really based on variability to get the right balance of features and price points, it fits very well in our product strategy in terms of our capability allows them to build applications on our always on capability. And as it relates their cadence, their development cadence Andy was spot on, they are much more responsive and reactive to market conditions both from a competitive standpoint but also market conditions from a mobile operator and consumer standpoint and what we see them is moving and reacting much quicker and for us we see that as a gifting in deal in terms of being able to intercept certain programs and get our solution in their devices.
   
   
   Bob S., That China IP will be just the thing….sweep up in China for us.
   
   PS on this cc snip
   
   third is with a rapidly growing top-ten smartphone OEM in China.
   
   things change fast there……..
   
   this was the best part of the cc for me
   
   
   Yes. Let me add one more bit of color, and this was definitely in the prepared remarks but so that you understand what we are talking about. As we went in to China what we found was that while people thought it was interesting that we have our own algorithms many of these Chinese especially the top tier guys, either have their own set of algorithms so they are using a third party. So when we talk about a third party
   
   
   there is actually one company that seems to dominate the China landscape and that is the guy that we approached and we are partnering with right now. So what was happening right now is this person, this is the i algorithm person that I mentioned in the script. He is physical porting their algorithms to our S3 platform, so that we have a complete solution that the Chinese OEMs, the top tier guys can readily go to market with and that is very important part of our strategy in accelerating our revenue.
   
   
   that is very important, we want to read bout it mwc?

Dear Ms./Mr. :

By 2025, over 100 billion connections will band us together in a digital world. As more industries and nations embrace this digital transformation, telecom operators will be in a unique position as the core providers of network connectivity.

We would like to invite you to visit us at GSMA's Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2016, from 29th June, 2016 to 1st July, 2016. We hope to lay the groundwork for an industry ecosystem that delivers a ROADS experience through openness, collaboration and shared success, explore the best ways to promote digital transformation across all industries, and build a better connected world together.

Make sure to stop by and explore new challenges and opportunities in an open atmosphere. We look forward to sharing ideas on IoT, Video, SDN/NFV, and other technologies that are at the forefront of our evolution as an industry. When you have the time, we would also like to invite you to visit Huawei Shanghai MBB Executive Briefing Center for more in-depth discussion and discovery.

Thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to seeing you in Shanghai.

Zou Zhilei
President of Carrier Business Group

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Speakers - five talks there.

Huawei's Agenda in GSMA Forum
June 29th
16:15-17:30

5G Creating Value for Consumers and Industry in Asia Pacific
Zhu Peiying, Fellow & Senior Director, Wireless Technology Lab, Huawei

Kerry Hotel Pudong, Pudong Ballroom3

June 30th
11:15-12:30

The Future of Video on Mobile
Ma Hui, Director, Wireless Network Planning Department, Huawei

Kerry Hotel Pudong, Pudong Ballroom4

13:45-15:00

Cyber Security
Frank Ip, Director, Product Management, Huawei Technologies, USA

Kerry Hotel Pudong, Pudong Ballroom4

16:05-16:20

Building Open NB-IoT Solution and Ecosystem
Jiang Wangcheng，Vice President Marketing & Solutions Department, Huawei

Kerry Hotel Pudong, Shanghai Ballroom1

Huawei | Digital Operation Transformation Ecosystem Forum
June 30th | Chateau Star River Hotel Pudong Shanghai, Grand Ball Room
09:00-09:20

Digital Operations Platform Ecosystem Planning
China Mobile Zhejiang Branch

09:20-09:40

Sharing on Dynamic and Efficient Infrastructure Management & Open Experience
China Vanke Co., Ltd.

Huawei | Big Video Summit
June 30th | The Grand Ballroom of the Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel
14:00-14:20

Welcome Speeches
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. & GSMA

14:20-14:40

Analysis of Video Industry Trends and Business Models in the Asia-Pacific.
Adi Kishore, LightReading

14:40-15:00

Video Experience Standards Drive Industry Development
Head of the IP Service and Application Workgroup of the IP & Multimedia Communication Technical Committee of the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), Deputy Director of the Mobile Internet Department, Institute of Communication Standards Research (ICSR) at CAICT

15:00-15:20

Sharing of Developing the Industry and Communication Video Business Based on IPTV
China Telecom Sichuan Branch

15:20-15:40

Open, Integrated and Cloud-based Video Solution Architecture
Li Kunlong, Director of Carrier Video Service Department, Huawei

15:40-16:00

Construction of the Video Industry Ecosystem and Hot Topics of the Industry
Wasu Media & Network Co., Ltd.

Location

Bob S., Got that China algo IP all ready to go? Sweep up that TAM in China. NOt all the tea in China, all the TAM in China.

Anything good for part owners of this business?

Yes, this is a very important stage in China. We have all the right stuff and poeple in place for this meeting to be the BEST that we had a person at?


Consumers to Experience Connected Lifestyle at GSMA Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2016


Connected Cars, Devices, Drones, eSports, Gaming and Virtual Reality Take Centre Stage at Annual Shanghai Event

May 31, 2016 03:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SHANGHAI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Consumers attending the GSMA Mobile World Congress Shanghai will have the opportunity to experience the hottest mobile trends, all in one place. Held from 29 June through 1 July at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC), Mobile World Congress Shanghai features two “Connected Lifestyle” halls that will showcase the latest products and services, including connected cars, devices, drones, eSports, gaming, virtual reality and wearable technology, among others. Further, Mobile World Congress Shanghai will be held alongside the Shanghai Digital Information Festival and Smart City Expo – Shanghai Pudong, highlighting the intersection of mobile and ICT and the impact on citizens’ everyday lives.

“Visitors to Mobile World Congress Shanghai will enter a world of exciting, interactive experiences and will see firsthand the nearly endless possibilities enabled by mobile.”

Tweet this
“Mobile technology touches nearly every part of our daily lives, helping us stay close to family and friends, improve our fitness, monitor our health, manage our homes, make purchases and payments, entertain us, and so much more,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “Visitors to Mobile World Congress Shanghai will enter a world of exciting, interactive experiences and will see firsthand the nearly endless possibilities enabled by mobile.”

Living the Connected Lifestyle

The Connected Lifestyle Halls at Mobile World Congress Shanghai (Halls N3 and E7) include an array of event features, exhibition zones and stands, and programmes that bring the mobile life directly to consumers:

GSMA Innovation City

At the GSMA Innovation City in Hall N3, visitors will explore an immersive environment demonstrating how intelligent mobile-connected products and services are positively changing the world around us. The City includes a number of dedicated “Connected Zones” that focus on specific interests such as sports, automotive, retail and transportation, showcasing interactive demonstrations from partners including Akyumen, DTS, Hangar 18 NOA, Huawei, KT Corporation, MyFC, NAES, nubia, OPPO and Thinfilm. For more information, visitwww.mwcshanghai.com/innovation-city/.

The Mobile Gaming Zone @ Mobile World Congress Shanghai

Mobile World Congress Shanghai welcomes all gamers to the Mobile Gaming Zone in Connected Lifestyle Hall E7. A highlight will be the first Mobile World Congress Shanghai Mobile eSports Invitational featuring “Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft”. The competition will run over three days, pitting eight individual Hearthstone players from across China against each other in a battle for supremacy and prizes. In addition to the live audience in the Mobile Gaming Zone, the competition will be streamed via LeTV to approximately 300,000 viewers over the course of the event. Mobile gaming enthusiasts will also have a chance to test their own skills in an interactive mobile gaming area and enter the world of Hearthstone cosplay, bringing heroes such as Jaina Proudmoore, Gul’dan and Anduin Wrynn to life.

Virtual Reality Zone

Mobile World Congress Shanghai visitors will have the chance to check out one of the hottest technology trends today: virtual reality. Located in the centre of Connected Lifestyle Hall E7, the Virtual Reality Zone enables attendees to immerse themselves in an exciting 3D world filled with interactive, 360-degree experiences. Over three days, attendees can experiment with the latest cutting-edge products from companies such as HTC Vive, 51 Wo Fang, Conduct VR and others in the HTC Vive Experience Zone, as well as technologies from major players such as 3Glasses, the Korea Virtual Reality Industry Association (KoVRA), Realmax Technology and others. For more information, visit www.mwcshanghai.com/virtualreality/.

Drones! at Mobile World Congress Shanghai

Drones are at the forefront of a new era of aviation, for recreational use by consumers, but also in business applications such as agriculture, cinematography, fishing, logistics and many others. In Hall N3 at the exhibition, “Drones! at MWC Shanghai” will showcase a number of drone manufacturers including Skye Intelligence Technology and ZERO TECH Intelligence Technology, as well as our drone “flying cage”, where attendees will get to see drones in action. For more information, visit www.mwcshanghai.com/drones/.

Devices and Wearables

Connected Lifestyle Hall E7 will also feature the Device City, which will bring top device makers together in one area, including Gionee, Huawei, LePhone, OPPO, Samsung and Vivo, among others. Back at Mobile World Congress Shanghai for a second year, Swiss Fashion Smartwatch Sponsor MyKronoz will put the spotlight on wearable devices, helping attendees to design personalised smartwatches with the watch model, wristband colour and strap pattern of their choice, and giving visitors the chance to win a daily grand prize from MyKronoz.

Across the Mobile World Congress Shanghai exhibition, additional leading companies will be showcasing the latest and greatest products, technologies and services for tech-savvy consumers, including Alibaba, China UnionPay, Cityholic, FashionTV, Ford, Lenovo, LeTV, LG Electronics, Snail Mobile, Sony Corporation, Tencent, Visa, Xiaomi, YAP Company and ZTE. For more information, visitwww.mwcshanghai.com/exhibition/.

more.........