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The Engadget Interview: Lixin Cheng on ZTE's US future at CTIA 2013
Last week at CTIA, we sat down with Lixin Cheng -- CEO of ZTE USA -- for a candid discussion about the company's future in the US. The conversation started with ZTE's current portfolio in the US, which consists of 18 SKUs -- primarily inexpensive Android smartphones (most with LTE) for the prepaid market. Mr. Cheng mentioned that the company's doing quite well in the US thanks to an 85.7 percent year-to-year growth in market share. ZTE is now in third place among prepaid handset manufacturers with a market share of 17 percent. He explained that carriers are seeing revenue growth from prepaid services which now account for 22.5 to 29 percent of revenue. This puts the company in a strong position for the future, despite last year's investigation by Congress. So we asked Mr. Cheng if and when ZTE would bring flagship phones like the Grand S or Grand Memo to the US in partnership with the four major carriers. His reply: I have promised you at CES that we're going to bring the Grand S or Memo series into [the] US, and we are working on that, and I think that very soon we will announce some good news. That's good news indeed. Hit the break for more, including our video interview and full transcript.
ZTE USA's CEO: US investigation report is actually good for us
You may think that Lixin Cheng, the top banana at ZTE's USA division since June 2010, has had a tough time facing strong accusations regarding its ties with the Chinese government and its lack of transparency; but at MWC yesterday, the CEO told us that the investigation has actually been beneficial for his company. "So far, the report really has no negative impact on our business in the US ... it actually helps us build the brand," said Cheng. "When the report came out, it was such a high profile news and everyone was talking about ZTE. Some of our handset consumers may call the hotline and say, 'Hey, I have a phone from ZTE, do I have security concerns?' And of course, most people would find out no, there are no security concerns."
