MWC: ZTE announces Skate phone and an unnamed Honeycomb tablet

TELECOMS GIZMO maker ZTE has announced a May date for its own skateboard inspired handset called Skate and a 10-inch tablet running Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

We thought Skate was a reference to the fishy bottom dweller but nevertheless ZTE's Skate will come pre-loaded with the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, has a 4.3-inch touchscreen, an 800MHz processor and a built-in compass along with WiFi, GPS and HSDPA/UMTS for business users on the move.

No official pricing or carrier details are available at this time and it is likely that the handset will be rebranded in line with operator requirements when it comes to the UK. The ZTE Blade is known as the Orange San Francisco.

There is even less information available about the Honeycomb tablet with no release date or pricing confirmed, but we do know it has a 1GHz processor and a WXVGA display with 1,280x800 resolution.

Despite the mysteries ZTE was bigging it up at Mobile World Congress. "In 2010 ZTE shipped in excess of 90 million devices globally," said He Shiyou, EVP at ZTE. The firm broke into market analyst's IDC's top five smartphone vendors list for the first time last year and it has set its sights on shipping five times the number of devices this year. µ