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"To skin or not to skin? That's hardly ever a question for Android OEMs. And, in the case of some Chinese manufacturers, that mark of software differentiation comes in the form of three dimensions. We've already seen Huawei trot out its (optional) 3D UX for the Ascend P line, and now it appears ZTE's ready to follow suit with a custom interface powered by Rightware. The Kanzi UI, as it's called, will come pre-loaded on all of the company's smartphones currently shipping with Ice Cream Sandwich, treating users to a 3D homescreen experience and giving developers a unified platform to port their designs. It's good news if you're a fan of that overlaid visual gimmickry, but we much prefer our Google desserts vanilla and without any toppings. Hit up the break to check out the official presser.Show full PR text      ZTE Launches Android Smartphones Featuring 3D Homescreen by Rightware Kanzi UI Solution     Kanzi UI Solution enables latest ZTE smartphones to stand out from the masses with innovative, highly differentiated and engaging 3D Android homescreens     Espoo, Finland &amp;ndash; May 24, 2012 &amp;ndash; Rightware Oy, a leader in embedded 3D user interface (UI) technologies, announced today that ZTE Corporation (\"ZTE\"), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has started the shipment of its latest Android 4.0 smartphones powered by Rightware's Kanzi&amp;reg; UI Solution. ZTE Corporation is rapidly growing smartphone manufacturer worldwide and according to IDC, ZTE became world's fourth largest handset maker in the world in Q4 2011 with global market share of 4,9%.     \"ZTE is committed to providing customers around the world with innovative technologies, and our latest smartphone portfolio includes highly differentiated and engaging 3D Android 4.0 ICS smartphones targeted for consumers globally. With help of Rightware and Kanzi UI Solution our latest smartphones are equipped with first-class 3D homescreen, providing consumers the best user experiences delivered on mobile devices,\" said Mr. Jichao Li, Vice President of ZTE Corporation.     Rightware's patent-pending Kanzi UI Solution consists of two product components: Kanzi Studio and Kanzi Engine. Kanzi Engine is an integral part of a device's software platform, whereas Kanzi Studio is a standalone UI design software enabling rapid creation of innovative and highly attractive 3D user interfaces. Kanzi Studio works seamlessly with leading 3D content creation tools, such as Autodesk 3DS Max, Maya and XSI and Blender. Once built, modifying and deploying UI designs to various different devices and platforms can be done seamlessly and without additional engineering effort. Given its long work in the field of graphics performance testing, Rightware has been able to optimize Kanzi Engine to make it capable of executing highly comprehensive UI designs with superior performance.     \"We're very excited to announce ZTE Corporation licensing the Kanzi UI Solution. Our designers and engineers worked together with ZTE's team and the results of this cooperation now boost ZTE in competing for the pole position in the global smartphone rally. Their latest Android smartphones powered with Kanzi 3D user interfaces significantly raise the bar for the competition,\" said Tero Sarkkinen, CEO of Rightware.     As well as providing the industry's most cutting-edge user interface technologies, Rightware also provides its customers with a full range of complementing services, including UI design, implementation and unique performance benchmarking of various different chipsets. With the help of Rightware Kanzi UI Solution customers get the industry's most modern turnkey solution that dramatically speeds up time to market with best-in-class quality.     For more information about Kanzi&amp;reg; UI Solution, please visit: www.rightware.com/kanzi"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/26/kanzi-ztes-3d-ux-for-ics-handsets/>