Motorola Looking For Help From ZTE?

Xiong Hui, VP of Marketing for handsets at ZTE, a Chinese handset manufacturer, was quoted by Reuters as saying, “we’ve been keeping in touch with Motorola on a wider cooperation.” Obviously not a binding statement by any measure, but interesting, nonetheless. ZTE only recently entered the U.S. market with its C88 clamshell handset, headed for MetroPCS. Certainly not a glamorous handset by any measure, but a sign that the manufacturer is interested in this market, and looking for a way in.

Motorola had announced recently that it was interested in shedding off its failing mobile phones division, though it very quickly retracted with a promise from the CEO to get things back in line quickly. After their paltry showing at the Mobile World Congress, where nearly every other big player made some pretty huge announcements, it wouldn’t be surprising if Motorola announced a much closer cooperation with another manufacturer.

However, as a note to ZTE, there’s likely a reason that they’re failing and no one else wants to pick them up. You know what they say, though – one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.