In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Monday, Lu Qianhao, head of the Shenzhen-based company’s handset marketing strategy said that ZTE’s smartwatch will offer technological features that are similar to existing products such as the Galaxy Gear, but will sell for lower prices as it tries to appeal to China’s cost-conscious consumers. “We are focusing on the mainstream market,” he said. The ZTE smartwatch, similar to the Samsung Gear, will run exclusively on ZTE devices which industry analysts consider a terribly bad idea. The company plans to unveil the smartwatch in the first quarter of next year and start selling it in the second quarter, according to the journal. ZTE will first sell its smartwatch only in China, but it wants to gradually enter the U.S. and European markets later. ZTE predominantly known for being a network equipment vendor for carriers has a vibrant presence here in Africa powering the back-haul infrastructure of most of the Telecoms in the continent. When According to a new report just published on the smartwatch market from NextMarket Insights, the smartwatch market is forecast to reach a total of 15 million smartwatches shipped worldwide, up from 5 million this year. Hence its no surprise that device vendors like ZTE are jumping into the smartwatch market and we expect more vendors to start rolling out their own versions of the device next year.
