Jul 4, 2011 13:47 GMT  ·  By

ZTE has recently announced that it has sold more than two million ZTE Blade units since its launch in the second half of 2010.

In addition, the Chinese handset manufacturer expects to ship more than 80 million handsets this year.

ZTE Blade is one of the most popular Android smartphones launched by ZTE and is now available in over 30 countries and regions, including the UK, France, Greece, Spain, Poland and Turkey.

Furthermore, the handset was successfully introduced on mobile markets where other major mobile phone manufacturers have a much bigger share, such as Japan and Finland.

The Blade was re-branded and launched as Orange San Francisco in the UK and was one of the carrier's best-selling handsets at launch.

In Japan, the Blade was also launched as Softbank Venus and offered users Android 2.2 (Froyo) out-of-the-box.

ZTE Blade has been operator Wind’s best-selling smartphone since its launch in January. According to Wind, the monthly sales volume of the Blade in Greece was around 3000 units at the time of its launch.

It appears that ZTE Blade exceeded sales of Apple's iPhone in Finland, but only in November / December 2010 and January 2011.

In China, the phone is expected to be launched as the ZTE V880 and has been customized for China Unicom’s WCDMA network.

In addition, China Telecom and China Mobile will also launch the ZTE Blade in the next few months.

ZTE Blade has been recognized in the mobile industry and won multiple awards such as: the Best Handsets by German magazine “Connect,” for Best Cost/Performance and Editors Choice by Greece’s “PC World,” and in the UK, Best Value Smartphone by “Smartphone Essentials” magazine and Best Buy by “The Sunday Times.”

Before its launch, ZTE Blade won the awards for Europe’s Best Design and China’s Best Design of the Year, as well.