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"As John F. Kennedy once noted, the Chinese word for \"crisis\" is composed of the characters for \"danger\" and \"opportunity.\" So characteristically, amid the hand-wringing at CES about the show's decreased relevance, a handful of Chinese brands saw a big opportunity. \nIn fact, the emergence of several Chinese brands as wannabe major players became one of the central narratives of the show. Typically at CES, Chinese tech brands are relegated to the International Pavilion rather than the show proper. \nThis year, though, there were at least five brands from China \u2014 Hisense, ZTE, TCL, Huawei and Haier \u2014 that took the main stage or at least got treated seriously by the press. \nNext up: Convincing U.S. consumers that Chinese brands equal high quality. Despite the fact that most U.S. electronics are actually manufactured in China these days, U.S. consumers still view Chinese brands on a lower plane, says Hayes Roth, CMO of Landor Associates, a branding consultancy. However, those beliefs can change. \nRoth pointed out that Japanese brands Sony and Panasonic set the precedent for changing U.S. mindsets in the 1960s. Buoyed by a simultaneous influx of Japanese auto brands, the U.S. public slowly began to have a different view of \"Made in Japan,\" Roth says. \"The Japanese got around that by reinventing quality control,\" Roth says. \"They became the gold standard.\" A generation later, South Korean brands LG, Hyundai, Kia and Samsung convinced U.S. consumers that Korean goods could go toe-to-toe with Japanese products.\nSamsung, in particular, likely provides an aspirational road map for Chinese brands. In 2012, the brand successfully battled the perception that it was an Apple copycat with a slew of innovative, quality products. Samsung is now the top producer of cell phones in the world and its smartphones outsell Apple's by a roughly two-to-one margin. \nHowever, success for the following brands is far from a given. Roth notes for instance that, despite its lead in the marketplace, the China-based Lenovo \"hasn't become a dominant brand.\" In the footwear category, Li-Neng, known as the Nike of China, is still pretty obscure in the U.S., even though it's earned high-profile U.S. endorsers like Dwyane Wade. Another cautionary tale is HTC, the Taiwanese telecom brand whose quick ascendance in the U.S. has been followed by an equally swift collapse. \nDespite the odds, the following Chinese brands saw CES as their springboard for a breakout 2013: \nHisense\n\n\nHisense has been established in the U.S. since 2001 and makes TVs, refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners, among other products. Since 2007, it has achieved 30% annual growth. In 2012, the company posted $2 billion in sales. By 2015, it aims to achieve a total of $5 billion in sales. At CES, Hisense got attention by showing off a 110-inch ultra HD TV, a Smart TV controlled by gestures and voice and a glasses-free 3D TV. The company also makes Android phones. \nImage courtesy of Hisense\nZTE\n\n\nZTE has had a U.S. presence since 1995. The company manufactures phones for Verizon, among others, but plans to make a bigger name for itself in 2013 with a Firefox OS-based smartphone. ZTE plans to release the device in Europe \u2014 and possibly the U.S. \u2014 this year. \"They're really expanding their range and their portfolio,\" \nImage credit: Mozilla\nTCL\n\nTCL is the world's fourth-largest TV producer after Samsung, LG and Sony. At CES, TCL displayed an Android-based TV called Ice Screen that includes Frequency, a video curation app that lets you subscribe to BBC, CNN and other channels.\nHuawei\n\n\nHuawei sought to stand out from the pack at CES with the Ascend P1 S, which is billed as the \"world's slimmest smartphone\" at 6.68 mm and the Ascend D2 smartphone, which sports a 6.2-inch screen. \nImage courtesy of Huawei\nHaier\n\nHaier, another conglomerate that makes everything from mobile phones to washing machines, showcased a vision-control system for TVs at CES that lets you adjust the volume and browse a news feed with your eyes. \nThumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, Nikada"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/01/11/5-chinese-tech-brands-to-watch/>