China's Cellular-Gear Maker ZTE - A Global Titan Telecom?

From BusinessWeek:

"China's No. 2 cellular-gear maker (ZTE) has launched a campaign to break into the ranks of Nokia and Motorola"

"ZT-who? The company, based just north of Hong Kong in Shenzhen, is little known in the West. But it's already China's second-biggest telecom-equipment vendor, after crosstown rival Huawei Technologies Co. Sales of its handsets, base stations, switches, software, and broadband networking gear grew 35%, to $4.1 billion, last year. Profits jumped 50%, to an estimated $186 million, according to brokerage DBS Vickers Securities. And exports soared 170%, to $1.6 billion."

"As ZTE picks up the pace, both it and Huawei are shaking up the telecom industry worldwide. With their low-cost manufacturing, vast pools of engineering talent, and abundant supply of customer-service technicians, the Shenzhen pair "really could change the structure of the industry,"says Andrew Chetham, an analyst with Gartner Inc. in Hong Kong. "In five years' time, Western companies [won't be able to] keep up with their research and development spending because of their low-cost advantage." Read more