ZTE launched its latest budget smartphone on Monday,as its share in the midmarket segment has tripled over the last several years as customers gravitate toward less pricey mobile options.

Its latest iteration in the ZMax series, the ZMax Pro,is available for $99 after a rebate from MetroPCS, a prepaid carrier owned by T-Mobile. The jumbo-sized phone will be available on Aug 1 with pre-orders that started yesterday.

'ZTE drives innovation that impacts the daily lives of US consumers by delivering innovation to the midtier segment, as seen in the aff ordable ZMax Pro that features the latest technology for less than $100,' said Lixin

Cheng, chairman and CEO of ZTE USA, in a statement.

The 6-inch Pro is the first US carrier-supported phone under $100 that features a fingerprint sensor, a frontfacing

and back-facing camera,and 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128GB.

'We build phones that fi ll the gap amongst a group of consumers that are underserved - a segment that continues to grow every day,' said Andrew Elliott,vice-president of ZTE USA,at the promotional event in New York.

'Phones between the $200 price point and $400 price point have seen more innovation,greater value, at a faster rate,' he said. 'ZTE is the driving force of bringing more value and innovation to consumers.'

The phone also has a back-facing fingerprint sensor,technology that usually comes with higher-end phones.

ZTE previously released the Axon 7, its first phone for the high-end market, and has been working with MetroPCS

since 2007, where it launched its first phone for the US market.

Cheng previously told China Daily that the company's goal for 2016 was to strengthen its position in the entryand

mid-level smartphone segment. ZTE is the fourthlargest smartphone supplier in the US and has more than 22 million active users in the 18-to-34-year-old demographic.

ZTE is an official smartphone partner with several National Basketball Association teams - the Houston Rockets, New

York Knicks, Chicago Bulls,Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors - as part of its brand-building campaign.

(China Daily USA  07/19/2016 page1)