Visitors check out products at the ZTE stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Feb 24, 2014.  [Photo/Agencies]

ZTE Corp, the seventh-biggest smartphone maker, expects sales of fourth-generation (4G) phones to make up at least 40 percent of its global smartphone shipments in 2014, a company executive said on Thursday.

Shenzhen-based ZTE, smaller than cross-town rival Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, aims to ship 60 million smartphones this year, 20 million more than last year, ZTE global head of mobile devices Zeng Xuezhong told a news conference in Hong Kong.

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"Traditionally, our smartphone business is strong in the US, Japan and Europe. But this year we will add China to that list," Zeng told reporters. "We have released our high-end models in China and we will also launch our 1,

1,000-yuan ($162.5) cellphone on a large scale in March. So we are very confident in our LTE phones."

ZTE returned to net profit last year after making a loss in 2012, it said on Wednesday. Operating revenue for the year dropped 10.6 percent, its biggest decline on record and the lowest in three years.

ZTE trails domestic competitors Huawei and Lenovo Group Ltd, respectively numbers three and five in the world by smartphone shipments, according to International Data Corp. Huawei shipped 48.8 million smartphones last year, IDC said. Lenovo, which acquired the Motorola Mobility handset unit from Google Inc in January, shipped 45.5 million units.

However, as telecoms equipment makers, ZTE and Huawei are set to reap the rewards of contracts to build high-speed 4G mobile networks around the world.

ZTE predicts global spending on 4G will be $100 billion in 2014.

ZTE, Huawei and Lenovo still depend on China for the vast majority of their smartphone sales. Huawei and ZTE are set to doubly benefit from China's 4G rollout as they make money from building the networks as well as handsets.

Reuters

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