Smartphones And 4G Pushes ZTE To Huge Profits

ZTE has announced a huge rise in profits as the company increasingly becomes a major player in the mobile space.

The Chinese manufacturer revealed a 94 percent rise in net profit through 2014, spurred on by increased adoption of its smartphones (such as its new Star 2, pictured below) and 4G network equipment, the latter of which pushed it to become the fastest-growing provider of 4G solutions globally last year.

Overall, ZTE’s profit came to 2.63 billion yuan ($423.4m), a significant rise from 1.36 billion yuan in 2013, with operating revenue rising 8.3 percent to 81.4 billion yuan, around half of which came from ‘international operations’ outside of China.

Future gazing

Looking ahead to 2015, the Shenzhen-based company is looking to continue is move into foreign markets, primarily through the expansion of its network division.

ZTE is hoping to help carriers deploy networks with enhanced intelligence and flexibility through its multidimensional data management and large-enabled platforms.

In enterprise markets, the company says it will pursue opportunities in RCS, cloud services, smart city to help enterprise customers navigate the “Industry 4.0” or “Industrial Internet” transformation.

Elsewhere, ZTE will also look to move into new areas of focus for its mobile terminals business, including research into a new generation of voice control technology, artificial intelligence and mobile security.

The company will also push for new markets through its CGO innovation laboratory, which it says “will be the focus of incubation of emerging technologies”, including smart voice, artificial intelligence, wireless charging, and distributed power generation, large data platforms and applications, Internet banking, and mobile payments.

What do you remember about the smartphones of 2014? Try our quiz!