China's ZTE Going "Tactile" in Europe
China’s ZTE Corp., best known as a telecommunications equipment maker but also a growing vendor of mobile phones, estimates it will ship 300,000 units of a new Android smartphone to Europe this year as sales launch in France this month, a ZTE spokeswoman said late Monday.
The smartphone, with a 3.5-inch touch screen, is ZTE’s second in France using Google’s Android operating system.
France Telecom’s Orange, which has already sold the phone in the U.K. with the name “The San Francisco” since September, will also sell the device in France as the “Tactile Internet 2? starting Nov. 18, an Orange spokesman said. It will sell the phone in France for 249 euros ($343) without any service plan and starting at 9 euros with a post-paid plan, the spokesman said.
France’s Bouygues Telecom will also sell the new Android phone as the “Blade,” the ZTE spokeswoman said.