ZTE Corp. and UK-based operator, 3 jointly launched ZTE Racer, a low-cost mobile phone designed on the Android 2.1 (Éclair) platform.

The launch marks ZTE’s first Android-based offering in the UK market. For 3 it is the lowest priced model in its Android offerings at a price of £99.99.

“We're really excited to bring the ZTE Android smartphone into our range. Combining the power of Android and the strength of our 3G network, we're enabling more and more customers to get a great mobile internet experience at a price that's right for them,” said David Kerrigan, Head of Internet Service, Three UK.

“The Racer is ZTE’s next step in making smartphones available to the UK market at prices affordable by the majority of consumers,” said Mr. Wu Sa, Director of Mobile Device Operations, ZTE (UK) Ltd. “Mobile handsets using Android operating systems are taking a large share of the market and ZTE is investing in the innovative platform with Three to meet customer demand.”

The handset will be offered as a co-branded handset and sports a 2.8” QVGA touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, 256 MB of internal memory, Bluetooth and 7.2Mbps HSDPA capabilities. It offers quick access to popular social networking sites as well as web services such as Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, Google Maps and Google Talk.