ZTE will be presenting its flagship phone AXON as a state gift to the British government. (Photo : www.androidcentral.com)
Chinese tech company ZTE will present its new flagship AXON as one of the official gifts to the British government during President Xi Jinping’s four-day state visit to the United Kingdom, an article on the tech website gsmarena.com said.
A spokesman of the company who confirmed the report with China Daily said: "It will be presented as a gift."
The report said that ZTE has a history of giving gifts to world leaders.
The spokesman said that delegates who accompanied President Xi during his visit to the United States in September reportedly also used AXON.
Last year, President Xi gave ZTE's devices as state gifts to Tajikistan officials, as well as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who was also presented with a ZTE device during his visit to ZTE's Shanghai R&D Center.
This year, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina's tripartite Presidency Dragan Covic, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe, have all been given ZTE's AXON devices as gifts.
In March 2014, during a state visit to Germany, China's first lady Peng Liyuan was reported using a ZTE Nubia Z5 Mini.
"AXON being given as a state gift is recognition of ZTE as one of China's top smartphone manufacturers, as the gift must meet the highest standards in terms of quality and innovation in order to be presented," the spokesman said.
AXON has "dual track" feature with high-fidelity sound recording and playback, as well as dual rear cameras that can take high-resolution images and videos. It is the world's first smartphone that can be unlocked with three different biometric authentication options: fingerprint, voice control and eye scan.
AXON received the "User Experience Gold Award" at the IFA 2015 held in Berlin, regarded as one of the world's largest consumer electronics fairs.
Bloomberg reported that ZTE's products are among the cheaper phones of choice among three of the big four U.S. carriers, becoming a force in the U.S. by selling good-enough phones at low prices.
On Thursday, Oct. 22, the company announced that it is launching a 64GB model of the ZTE AXON Pro in the U.S. market.
The consulting company Strategy Analytics said that the U.S. was the best performing overseas market for ZTE last year, as shipments of ZTE devices doubled. As of Dec. 31, ZTE had 20 million active users in the U.S.
"ZTE claimed about 8 percent of America's smartphone market in the second quarter of this year," said the U.S. market research firm International Data Corporation.
The company ranks fourth among smartphone makers overall in the U.S. market, after Apple, Samsung and LG.
ZTE said that it will continue to prioritize its superpower markets, China and the U.S., over the next three years, while raising its investment in 13 of its key markets worldwide.
By 2020, ZTE aims to rank among the top three smartphone manufacturers in its key markets.
