Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens top China's cellphone sector, survey says
(31 July 2000) Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson remain the top-three companies in
China’s cellphone market—but all of them are wary of German telecom giant
Siemens, which is coming on strong.
The Information Technology Market Research Institute of the Huicong International
Information Co. recently carried out a survey of China’s mobile telephone market.
The company found that Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson hold the top three spots, with
market shares of 31.9 percent, 29.4 percent and 21.4 percent, respectively
Siemens (7.3 percent), Philips (3.5 percent) and Toshiba (3.3 percent) hold spots
four through six, while the remaining 3.2 percent are claimed by other name brands,
the July 28 Zhonghua Gongshang Shibao (China Business Times) reported.
During the first half of the year, Motorola dominated China’s cellphone market. The
company introduced five new models during that period and maintained its
technological lead. In addition to the T2688 model, all existing Motorola products
have a wireless application protocol (WAP) capability, which is quite trendy on
today’s market, the article noted.
So far this year, Nokia has introduced only one model in China, the high-end N8850,
which debuted in January. According to the article, some retailers say Nokia earns
most of its profits in China from two older models, the N5110 and N8210.
Although Nokia introduced the WAP concept with its N7110 model in April 1999, the
company lost its prime opportunity to maintain its lead in the cellphone market
because it could not obtain a network permit, and because the N7110’s Internet
software experienced persistent problems.
Ericsson and Siemens make gains
After an entire year of reform in 1999, Ericsson, which teetered on the verge of
becoming a telecom has-been, finally began to rebound in China’s cellphone market
this year, the story said.
First, Ericsson offered customers looking for the latest in cellphone designs the
T28SC. It then introduced its R320S and R380S models, just when the frenzy over
WAP phones hit its peak, the Zhonghua Gongshang Shibao reported.
The article went on to say that the force that has made the most impact so far this
year—on Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson, as well as on the media and consumers in
China—is Siemens. First, the No. 4 company introduced three new cellphone
models in March alone. Two of these models have WAP capability.
Siemens then restructured itself in April and created its Information and
Communications Mobile Group. This combined all Siemens projects related to
mobile technologies, including infrastructure construction and applications
concerning terminals and mobile networks.
Soon after, Siemens announced it would invest US$1.5 billion to build a new mobile
Internet system in Asia in the next few years. The company also recently
announced its partnership with nine Chinese Internet firms with the goal of improving
WAP technology. |
