While Apple’s victory in the landmark Apple vs Samsung patent lawsuit dominated the news cycle over the weekend in the Western media, the story got more or less a subdued, understated treatment — buried deep inside the business section — in the
China Daily.
Nobody should be surprised at this treatment of a matter on “non-Chinese” news. Yet I confess that I kept looking for reaction stories on the topic in the Chinese media, because I am convinced this will have large repercussions on an army of emerging Chinese Android-based smartphone vendors who don’t think twice about making knock-off, me-too mobile phones.
More specifically, the name ZTE came to my mind. Now the fourth largest mobile phone vendor in the world, ZTE could be the next rival sued by Apple.
While ZTE still may not be a household name among consumers in the West, it is the first Chinese home-grown brand to truly go global.
Gartner’s latest market data shows that ZTE trailed only Samsung (No.1), Nokia (No.2) and Apple (No.3) in global sales of mobile devices [in units] in the second quarter of 2012. Moreover, since earlier this year, ZTE has made clear an ambitious plan to double its smartphone sales in 2012.
