KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — Telecommunications equipment and systems company, ZTE Corporation, aims to capture a 10 per cent share of Malaysia’s smartphone market by 2018, up from three per cent recorded last year.

Devices Group South-east Asia (SEA) Region, Chief Executive Officer, Jeremy Zhao said for 2016 and 2017, the company had targeted to increase its market share in the country to five per cent and to eight per cent, respectively.

“To achieve this, we will add another 40 concept stores by year-end from 10 currently, and start the ZTE Tour programme from today to increase customers’ awareness on our products,” he said.

He said the affordable pricing of ZTE products would be among the selling points to help boost the company’s market share.

Zhao said this during the launch of the new ZTE smartphone, Axon 7, and the ZTE Tour here, today.

He said in terms of the smartphone segment, ZTE took 4.3 per cent of the global market share and was ranked at top six position in the second quarter ended June 30, 2016.

Zhao added that the company would focus on research and development (R&D) to improve its products rather than spending more on marketing.

“We invest about 15 per cent of our total profit annually on R&D to provide consumers with a series of premium products at affordable prices,” he said.

On its concept store expansion plan, ZTE Malaysia Corp Sdn Bhd Devices Group SEA Region, Channel Director, Danny Chan said the company was set to open three new stores in Skudai, Pulai and Johor Baru by month-end.

“Currently, the 10 existing concept stores are located in the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Baru and Kota Baru,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the launch ceremony.

On today’s event, Zhao said the company aimed to sell between 5,000 and 10,000 units of the Axon 7 smartphone model by year-end in Malaysia.

He is optimistic of achieving the target as the new model is priced at an affordable price of RM1,999 with premium specifications.

To-date, ZTE has sold over 150,000 units of smartphones in Malaysia since its debut in 2014 and has almost 1,200 dealers nationwide. — Bernama