Many may be unfamiliar with ZTE right now but that could change by the end of the year. The Chinese handset manufacturer could land on the global top 5 list in 2009. ZTE already cracked the top 10 in the last quarter of 2007.
According to Digitimes, ZTE saw its handset shipments increase to 45 million units in 2008, a 40 percent increase over the previous year. It has struck agreements with a number of carriers, including Vodafone, Hutchison and T-Mobile, and offers devices that cover GSM, CDMA, WCDMA.
In 2008, the top five were Nokia (470 million units shipped), Samsung, LG Electronics, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson (96.6 million units shipped). Who wants to bet that the latter two are looking over their shoulders?