By now, everyone should be familiar with the double-sided phone, the YotaPhone and its reiteration. Both devices have received critical acclaim with its innovative E-ink display that can be used for a variety of things. However, both handsets have not yet made official entry despite the company's crowdfunding campaign to bring their quirky smartphone to the United States due to complications with manufacturing partners. The only way for U.S. citizens to acquire a handset for themselves was through eBay or Amazon.
A recent report has surfaced, stating that the third iteration of the two-faced smartphone will be manufactured in partnership with popular Chinese brand ZTE. "The partnership involves the production of new generation of YotaPhone smartphones, as well as the development and integration of mobile services and software," said the Russian company in a report.
The partnership with ZTE should cut down the YotaPhone 3's cost by approximately 30 percent -- allowing the smartphone to compete with the likes of bang-for-the-buck smartphones such as the Moto-X Style, OnePlus 2 and other smartphones in the spectrum.
ZTE plans to launch the YotaPhone 3 in the first quarter of next year, but as of this writing, pricing is still unavailable. There is still no official announcement made by Yota whether the YotaPhone 3 would make it to the U.S., but with its partnership with ZTE, there would not be manufacturing complications or supply issues anymore that are believed to hinder the handset from coming to the country.
This is not the first time that a company has made partnerships with Chinese companies. Apple has been outsourcing its production to Foxconn manufacturers for all of its iOS devices to reduce production costs and achieve large profits. Meanwhile, Lenovo's acquisition of Motorola from Google, which has been completed last year, now manufactures Motorola devices in China. This has also greatly reduced the costs of Motorola smartphones.
