ZTE Corporation has signed an agreement with the European distribution business ofBrightpoint to provide own-branded smartphones and tablet devices to the UK.

The Chinese telecoms company - best-known in the UK for providing ‘white label’ devices – haspreviously said it expects to ship more than 80 million handsets this year, up from 60 million units in 2010.

Wu Sa, director of mobile device operations at ZTE UK, said “The success of the ZTE Blade, and the overwhelmingly positive reception at this year’s Mobile World Congress of the forthcoming Skatedevice, demonstrate that ZTE is set to become a key player in the smartphone sector. We chose to work with Brightpoint since its strategy dovetails with ours. ZTE made a commitment at the start of 2011 to alter its strategy from being a feature phone-centric supplier to producing much higher-end smartphones and delivering an enhanced user experience to the mass market.We are working closely with Brightpoint to launch smartphones into the UK market this year. We expect ZTE to become a household name synonymous with high quality smartphones and tablets.”

Rival manufacturer Huawei recently signed a European distribution and fulfillment agreement with UK-based 20:20 Mobile.