ZTE recently announced that Ni Fei has been reassigned as president of ZTE's terminal business unit, as well as president of Nubia, which is seen as a sign that ZTE intends to boost its mobile phone business.
The biggest problem facing Ni Fei is how to lead ZTE's terminal business to re-enter the mainstream market.
In a recent interview with Chinese media, Ni Fei said that ZTE has a low profile in China, and that it will take two to three years for the company to come back to public view, and that the results may be significant after five years.
He argued that for the ZTE terminal brand to re-emerge, the three things - product, brand and channel - must go hand in hand. "Accumulating to a certain more appropriate point, we may encounter some opportunities."
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ZTE used to co-dominate the Chinese mobile phone market with Huawei, CoolPad, Lenovo, but with Huawei and Xiaomi OPPO, Vivo became the new dominant player, ZTE and CoolPad, Lenovo has become a marginal manufacturer.
On June 16, ZTE announced that Ni Fei, president of Nubia, has been reassigned to the position of president of ZTE terminal business, as well as chairman of Nubia.
Nubia is an independent sub-brand of ZTE that was founded in October 2012 and is operated independently by a team of ZTE terminal operators, focusing on Internet brands and online markets. At present, ZTE still holds 49.9 percent of Nubia's shares and is the largest shareholder.
Ni Fei has been with ZTE since around 2000, and is a veteran of the mobile phone industry. His arrival has given ZTE hope for a new lease on life. In the past two years, with the advent of the 5G era, ZTE has been making use of its accumulated experience in communications to launch a number of 5G phones, and the brand's reputation seems to be on the rise.
According to a new report published by IDC, China's smartphone market saw 66.6 million shipments in the first quarter of 2020, down 20.3 percent year-on-year.
Among them, more than 90% of the share is occupied by Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo, "small" manufacturers living space is increasingly narrow.
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