TOKYO - ZTE Corporation, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions based in Shenzhen in southern China, and SoftBank, Japan's major telecommunications operator, announced Tuesday that their jointly- developed smartphone, Libero, will hit the Japanese market later in December.

The smartphone, called "Libero," will be the first Chinese smartphone to launch in the highly competitive Japanese market where iPhone of Apple Inc already excelled domestic competitors in sales.

Weighing only 115 grams and at 114 x 56 x 12.2mm in size, the Libero is the thinnest and lightest smartphone offering in SoftBank's winter-spring 2010/2011 product lineup. The smartphone uses the latest Android 2.2 operating system, incorporates a 3.5- inch WVGA TFT display, and supports Japanese, English and Chinese languages.

The Libero is ZTE's second hanset developed in collaboration with SoftBank -- the first, a simpler one with more basic features, was launched in late October this year.

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Prior to the Japan launch, the same ZTE smartphone had already been launched in Britain, France, Germany, Finland, Norway, Turkey, Hungary, as well as in 20 other countries across Europe.

"Japan is the world's top three economy and we hope our sales revenue from the Japanese market can compare with the market size," said Wang Yongzhong, general manager of ZTE mobile handset, adding the company had "high expectations" on Libero and hoped it could become a popular product in tech-savvy Japan.

Overall, Wang said ZTE expected to sell 1 million Libero handsets to distributors and operators throughout the world.

ZTE and SoftBank also announced that from October this year to March 2011, both companies will collaborate to launch eight models of terminal products into the Japanese market. Products will include additional smart phones, high-speed data cards, 42M and 14M Mi-Fi (mobile Internet hotspot) modems, 3G monitors, and Easy phones for both children and the elderly.

ZTE is China's only listed telecom manufacturer, publicly traded on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. ZTE's 2009 revenue increased 36 percent to $8,820.7 million.