The cheap phones quietly winning the U.S.

ZTE is quietly becoming a force in the U.S. by selling good enough phones at low prices - smaller prepaid smartphones for $30, basic phones with QWERTY keyboards for about the same, and so on. The Chinese company's products are among the cheap phones of choice at three of the big four U.S. carriers. (Verizon doesn't carry them.) ZTE claimed about 8 percent of America's smartphone market in the second quarter of this year, says researcher IDC, up from 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2014. That ranks the company fourth among smartphone makers overall, behind Apple, Samsung, and LG. "We came from nowhere, and now we are a solid force," says Lixin Cheng, head of ZTE's U.S. operations.For many people, their phone isn't a status symbol, or it's just something they don't care about at all - as long as it makes calls and pulls some light duty, they're happy. I really dislike how these phones and its users tend to be portrayed in the media - almost as if these people are stupid, silly, or dumb for not wanting the latest iPhone or Galaxy phone. Elitist nonsense.