ZTE Brings First Phone To Verizon: More To Come?

It's not that this phone in particular will make you dump your iPhone and come running, but it's yet another newcomer that can add some needed competition to the handset space in America. ZTE is a huge, well known company in Asia, and they do have some business here in North America as well. But up until now, it has been pretty impossible to find a ZTE mobile phone on a U.S. carrier. Verizon Wireless has just announced that they'll be bringing a ZTE handset to their airwaves for the first time, and now that this relationship is established, we're hoping that even more ZTE phones end up on VZW.

The Salute is shipping today, and while it's a simple phone, it's hopefully just the first of many. It offers a sliding form factor, a 1.3MP camera, speakerphone, Bluetooth and a battery good for up to 240 minutes of talk time and up to 220 hours of standby time on a single charge. There's also a 2.4" display, mobile Web access and a Social Beat application that ties together your Facebook, Twitter and MySpace profiles. It's available for just $19.99 on a 2-year contract, but again, we're eager to see what sort of smartphones ZTE has up their sleeve now that they're locked into a U.S. carrier. Watch out, Apple/HTC/LG/Samsung!

Verizon Wireless Salutes ZTE's First Handset on the Nation's Most Reliable Network

Easy-to-Use Slider Phone Comes Packed with All the Essential Features to Stay on Schedule

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and RICHARDSON, Texas, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, the company with the nation's largest and most reliable wireless 3G network, and ZTE USA, Inc., introduce the Verizon Wireless Salute™.  Available today, the lightweight, slim slider phone offers up to 240 minutes of talk time and up to 220 hours of standby time on a single charge.  It is a reliable handset with the most important features customers need in a single device, including a 1.3-megapixel camera, speakerphone and Bluetooth® headset support.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100812/NY49519 )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100812/NY49519 )

Key features:

    * Stylish slider design
    * Large 2.4-inch screen
    * 1.3-megapixel camera
    * Mobile Web capable
    * Messaging options include: text, picture and voice messaging; Mobile Email; Mobile Web Email; and Chat capable
    * Bilingual interface: English/Espanol
    * Micro USB 2.0 compatible


Lifestyle features:

    * Bluetooth® technology with support for the following Bluetooth profiles: headset, hands-free, phonebook access, and object push for vCard and vCalendar
    * Media Center provides access to downloadable games, ringtones, wallpapers, location-based services and more
    * Social Beat application – offers a single point for accessing social networking sites, allowing customers to stay connected to Facebook®, Twitter™ and MySpace®, plus more than 50 news, sports and entertainment feeds
    * Backup Assistant(SM) application – saves and updates a copy of the phone's address book to a secure website
    * VZ Navigator® capabilities for customers to receive audible turn-by-turn directions to millions of points of interest and share the directions with others
    * Preloaded with Bing Search


Price and availability:

    * The Salute is available today at www.verizonwireless.com and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores for $19.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.  Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.
    * For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.