ZTE’s FunBox Game Console
Mar 21, 2014
One of the trends in the video game industry over the past few years is the increase in the number of consoles for home television sets that run on Google’s Android operating system – a category often associated with the Ouya console launched in 2012 by a U.S. startup.
- ZTE’s FunBox home game console.
- ZTE Corp.
Now, more Chinese players are entering this burgeoning market, launching affordable micro-consoles that let people download and play games in living rooms.
The latest company to jump on the bandwagon is ZTE Corp., a telecommunications equipment supplier that also makes smartphones. ZTE’s joint venture with Chinese video game company The9 just started taking orders in China for its new micro-console called the FunBox, which can be used not just for games but also for video-chatting. The console and controller together cost 698 yuan ($112), according to ZTE. The company so far has no plans to sell it overseas.
ZTE’s move follows a similar announcement earlier this year by Huawei Technologies, another Chinese maker of telecom gear and smartphones. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, Huawei unveiled the Tron, a cylindrical-shaped console that, like FunBox, runs on a version of Android and comes with Nvidia’s Tegra 4 processor. Huawei plans to start selling the Tron in the second quarter in China. Huawei hasn’t announced the console’s exact price, but it will likely cost less than 1,000 yuan ($160), according to the company.
Chinese technology firms are seeing a big opportunity in China’s video game market. According to Huawei, China has about 400 million people who play video games. While the majority of those Chinese gamers are playing online games on their personal computers today, Huawei and ZTE are counting on strong potential demand for a console that can be used with a TV in the living room.
Consumers outside China may not be familiar with Huawei or ZTE, but both are major smartphone makers in China.
Over the past few years, Huawei and ZTE have been branching further outside their telecom gear business to sell more consumer products, starting with smartphones and are now entering new areas like wearable devices and game consoles.
At the Mobile World Congress telecom trade show in Barcelona last month, Huawei unveiled the TalkBand B1, a wristband-like wearable device that can also act as a Bluetooth headset for wireless phone calls. ZTE, meanwhile, showcased a smartwatch at the CES in January.