14 DAY TRIAL // Telecoms company ZTE Corporation has just announced that it has made its ZTE Skate smartphone available in Hong Kong, which marks the completion of the first phase of a worldwide roll-out that the device will enjoy.
This is the first Asia-Pacific market to receive the company's 4.3-inch smartphone, a flagship handset running under Google's Android operating system.
The new mobile phone was unveiled to the world earlier this year, but it landed on shelves only starting with this month, in Brazil.
There, the phone was launched on the airwaves of wireless carrier Vivo, on September 12th. Following this launch, the new device landed on shelves in Spain on September 16th, as part of Madrid Fashion week, at Telefonica.
Before the end of the year, the mobile phone will arrive on shelves in the U.K. and France in Europe, in Malaysia, Indonesia and China in Asia, and in the United States.
“We at ZTE are extremely enthusiastic about the global launch of the Skate smartphone,” said ZTE Executive Vice President and Head of the Terminal Division, He Shiyou.
“The Skate is a building block upon the success of our Blade model and is an important step forward for ZTE’s entry into the middle-to-high end smartphone market.
“We are committed to developing smartphone products and will launch a total of 30 smartphone models before the end of 2011.
The Skate packs a 4.3-inch TFT (thin film transistor) capacitive touchscreen display that can deliver a 480 x 800 pixel resolution.
The handset features a design inspired by the skateboard, is only 11.35 mm thick, and runs under Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system.
The new mobile phone also comes with a powerful application processor, and offers fast access to applications and games, as well as to various services that Google put in place for Android users.
The ZTE Skate is expected to prove even more successful than the company's previous flagship device, the ZTE Blade, which sold over three million units around the world.