Anti-virus firm AVG partners with China's ZTE to provide protection for its Android smartphones

Chinese electronics maker ZTE has announced a partnership with a major online security firm in Europe to provide anti-virus protection for its smartphones and tablets.

Under the terms of the deal, Shenzhen-based ZTE’s Android-based devices will now come with AVG's mobile anti-virus suite pre-installed for a 60-day free trial.

This is the first major foray into the Chinese market for AVG, a Czech company that has more than 200 monthly active users on its desktop and mobile anti-virus apps, mainly in the US and Europe. 

"For many of us, our smartphones have become the primary device that we spend most time with, but ensuring mobile security can sometimes be an afterthought," said ZTE business manager Wang Xuemi. 

"There's huge momentum in the adoption of mobile services in key emerging markets. The flipside of this growth is that it attracts attention [from hackers]," said David Ferguson, AVG senior vice president. 

More than 16 million mobile devices were infected with malware in 2014, according to a report published in February by telecommunications firm Alcatel-Lucent. It warned that users' location, private data and communications were at risk. 

Android devices had caught up with Windows laptops in terms of malware attack numbers, the report found, as owners of mobile devices had failed to take the necessary security precautions.