Several China brands truly are making a move towards marketing outside their own country. Recently with iNew, iOcean, Xiaomi, Zopo and Doogee coming out with 900/2100 WCDMA models for full European 3G coverage.
While I think a 850/1900/2100 version would have been a smarter decision given that nearly all European and UK carriers have 2100MHz WCDMA, and moves towards a quad or pentaband WCDMA phone would have been even smarter, we still have to commend these brands for some forward thinking. Especially since some still remain in the dark ages by including 2100 only (ahem.. Jiayu… ahem).
Including proper frequency support is one thing, but a retail presence is an entirely different matter and Zopo has the jump on this ballgame. They have retail shops in Germany, and have opened a shop in the Netherlands as well.
This is a dramatic change from just over a year ago when China brands still had a terrible name. Even though many people still put their nose up when you mention it’s a China brand phone, the situation is beginning to change with main stream coverage on the net and now in the last half year or so retail shops selling Zopo phones.
What really needs to be done to enter the market on an international level is to begin including full worldwide WCDMA and LTE support.
With MT6595 soon to be released stock with LTE in Q3/Q4 2014, we expect China brands to become even more accepted and known. Though it’s difficult to predict exactly when, we wouldn’t be surprised to see iNew and Zopo shops begin to pop up in the UK and possibly even the US within the next year or two. The US especially offers a challenge due to it’s strict licensing and red tape, but perhaps all it takes is a focused, enterprising individual with some dough to invest and it can be done.
In a side note, Alibaba is now making a push from the big time to the huge time as rumors fly regarding them going public in the US on the stock market.
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