The smartwatch market would reignite next year as ZTE announced that it would be devoting its resources to creating a device that would be cheaper than the Samsung Gear. According to the Wall Street Journal, ZTE's product marketing head Lu Qianhao told the news agency that the smartwatch that the company is currently working on will be launched on the first quarter of next year. It will then be available to the public the following quarter. Lu explained that the device would be somewhat similar to the Samsung Galaxy Gear unit, and ZTE will be targeting China's mainstream market. The device, however, will only conect to ZTE phones.

Samsung Galaxy Gear, which was released last September, was not received well due to bad reviews. The Android-powered device, which connects to specifc Samsung devices, enables users to answer calls on the fly, including receiving SMS and emails.

According to VentureBeat mobile senior editor Devindra Hardawar, who has reviewed Samsung Galaxy Gear, the wearable device's design was passable, but nothing memorable. The gear was deemed to be fairly large, and in a few months following its release, a leaked Best Buy memo,, that was leaked to Geek.com,, stated that the watch only had a 30% percent return rate.

Should the watch fail in their pursuit for diversification, ZTE is reportedly looking at other avenues which includes glasses and shoes.