The ZTE Corporation of China has plans to take a piece of that pie with two carrier-bound tablets. According to multiple online reports the new tablets will include the ZTE V55 and ZTE V66 both of which feature 7-inch displays and run versions of Google’s Android operating system.
Reports indicate that U.S. carrier Sprint will pick-up the ZTE V55 tablet this February for their network. The tablet will be sold under the marketing name ZTE Optik and it will cost Sprint customers $99.99 on contract after instant discounts that knock off $250 from the MSRP which is $349.99 according to one graphic (see below).
As for the other 7-inch tablet, the ZTE V66, it will join carrier Verizon Wireless’ line-up of tablet computers this year according to separate reports. The tablets price isn’t available now, but the V55 is going to be a 4G LTE device on Verizon’s network and those don’t normally come very cheap even with two-year contracts.
The technical specifications are pretty spars right now for the ZTE V55 and V66. The two tablets are said to feature 7-inch WXGA (1280×800) touchscreens, Android 3.2 Honeycomb, 1.2 GHz dual-core processors, 1GB of RAM, dual cameras (1x rear and 1x front), and a 4,000 mAh batteries.
ZTE will be a fresh face for US tablet buyers
Right now if you go to any major retail store that sells electronics and even clothing department stores you’ll be able to find at least one tablet available for purchase. The best tablets that US consumers are seeing are from household names like Apple, HTC, Lenovo, Motorola and Samsung. At this time names like ZTE and Huawei aren’t mainstays in the US tablet market as they are in places like China.
However for 2012 that is changing. First Huawei’s MediaPad tablet has begun shipping to the US to retailers and carrier T-Mobile who has rebadged the 7-inch MediaPad tablet as the T-Mobile Springboard. And now ZTE is coming out with two 7-inch tablets for the US market as well. In recent market estimates the US tablet market has proved to be the most active for pricey models and companies like ZTE and Huawei who normally stay away from the US market (when it comes to self-branded products) are taking notice and action.
[Source: tablets-planet.com ]