Smartphones, whose shipments have outpaced PCs, and tablet PCs have been gaining popularity globally as consumers increasingly use mobile devices to surf the Internet, update their Facebook accounts, play games and send e-mails.

ZTE, China’s No 2 network equipment maker, expects to ship more than 80 million handsets this year, up by a third from last year’s 60 million units.

Shipments of smartphones, which run Google’s Android operating system, would rise to 12 million units from three million last year, ZTE said.

“ZTE didn’t have the advantage during the TV era. ZTE wasn’t there during the PC times. Therefore, tablet PCs obviously represent an excellent opportunity for ZTE,” He Shiyou, executive vice-president for the company’s mobile devices unit, said.

Smartphone shipments outpaced PCs in the fourth quarter of last year, with manufacturers shipping more than 100 million smartphones, compared with 92 million personal computers, according to International Data Corp (IDC).

Global smartphone sales would likely grow to about 500 million units this year, up sharply from 300 million units last year, with 80 percent of the demand coming from developed markets, He quoted industry figures as saying.

“Half of the US cell phone sales are smartphones. So we have to keep up with the pace in the United States, Europe and Japan. That’s our most important strategy,” He said.

Tablet PCs have been a hit with increasingly mobile Internet-savvy users after Apple launched its iPad, with other tech companies, such as Samsung Electronics, Lenovo, Dell and Huawei battling for market share.

He said ZTE planned to ship three million tablet PCs this year, up from 200,000-300,000 units last year.

ZTE, like Huawei, is hoping to rely on consumer devices to drive growth.

GSM and CDMA handsets helped boost sales of ZTE, which reported first quarter net profit of 127.29 million yuan ($19 million), as sales from its traditional network equipment sector reported flat growth.