The Chinese communications companies Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation are taking full advantage of the ongoing fifth edition of the Mobile World Congress for products promotion.

Huawei Technologies is a leader in providing next generation telecommunications products and supplies to 45 of the world's top 50 operators.

Unveiling its first Android applications last year, a new lineup of Android handsets were brought to the Mobile World Congress, including the world's first High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) smartphone based on Google's operating system.

The U8800, one of the four new phones on display, incorporates the Android 2.1 operating system with a 9.7 cm touch screen and a download speed of 14 Mb7s.

Among other three, the U8300 is designed more for the youth market and gives rapid access to social networking sites like "Facebook" and "Twitter."

Meanwhile, the U8100 and the U8110 are entry level phones with a 7.1 cm touch screen. They incorporate WI-FI and Bluetooth as well as dual cameras.

These products will appear in Europe in the second quarter of 2010.

The company is also exhibiting the SmaKit S7, designed to share information across various screens. It also enables users to watch on-line movies and to make video calls on its 17.8 cm screen.

ZTE, providing telecommunications and network solutions works with over 500 operators in 140 countries, also launched its own smartphone on Monday.

The Chinese giant announced the launch of the Bingo handset, its first ultra-slim, large screen 3G handset with an 8cm screen and two cameras as well as A-GPS.

Speaking to the GSMA Mobile World Show Daily Magazine, Xiaodong Zhu, the companies European CTO, said although his company was somewhat weaker in brand strength compared with that of Apple or Nokia, ZTE was looking to invest heavily in product research and development.

ZTE will also seek to strengthen its position in the marketplace by working closely with telecommunication operators such as Vodafone and T-Mobile to tailor its smartphones for specific requirements.

The company will also launch its Android-based smartphone before the end of March.

Zhu said he also looked forward to the introduction of Long Term Evolution (LTE) devices, which will usher in the next generation of mobile broadband.

He said such devices would be available in limited numbers by the end of 2010 and commercial numbers in 2011.

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2010)