ZTE Corp released its 5G smartphone last week, making it the first vendor to offer a commercially ready 5G model. Shenzhen-listed ZTE launched its Axon 10 Pro in Fuzhou, Fujian province, where a trial 5G commercial network is available. The Axon 10 Pro has been tested for all three Chinese carriers, which makes it the first commercially ready 5G model in China. It features a specially designed 5G system of 10 antennas compared with 7 for 4G. About 2% of smartphones sold in China this year will be 5G, or an estimated 8 million units, said Xu Feng, President of ZTE’s Mobile Device Division. By March, ZTE had obtained about 1,000 patents on 5G and had 5G partnerships with 40 mobile carriers globally.

Chinese consumers are expected to be able to buy much-awaited 5G smartphones from other vendors starting in June. Oppo’s 5G smartphone models will enter the market within two months. Huawei’s 5G foldable smartphone Mate X is also scheduled to hit the market by the middle of this year. 5G handsets by Vivo, Xiaomi and OnePlus will become available in the middle of this year, the third quarter and the second half of 2019 respectively, according to statements from the companies. The next-generation smartphones are expected to deliver super-fast speeds, be able to download high-definition movies in seconds, and better enable complicated virtual reality games such as fighting a 3D-dinosaur.

Though some of these initial applications are possible in 4G, “it is 5G that is going to be a significant jump forward for phones because only with the latter’s higher bandwidth can these applications be more sophisticated and adopted by most consumers, delivering a really amazing impact,” said Nicole Peng, Senior Director of market research company Canalys. According to the China Center for Information Industry Development, the prices of the first-batch of 5G smartphones will exceed CNY10,000. But with telecom carrier subsidies, prices are likely to drop to CNY5,000 to CNY6,000 by the beginning of 2020. By September 2020, Apple is expected to unveil its first 5G smartphone and production costs will plummet. As a result, the average prices of domestic products are likely to continue declining to about CNY2,000.

“Starting next year, more consumers will upgrade their handsets to 5G smartphones. The prime time period will last till 2023, triggering an explosive growth in smartphone shipments,” said Kang Jialin, one of the authors of the report by the China Center. It forecast that about 10 million units of smartphones will be shipped this year and the number will hit 250 million in 2023, the China Daily reports.