Mobile phone sales make China a global leader
china.scmp.com
RAYMOND LI
Updated at 5.34pm:
Mobile phone production on the mainland in the first five months of this year was up more than 70 per cent year-on-year to nearly 28.8 million units, as the price of mobile phones continued to drop.
The 29 mainland-based handset makers have doubled their sales to 26.6 million compared with the same period last year, Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday (July 6).
This is in stark contrast to the slowdown in mobile phone output and sales elsewhere in the world. Industry analysts attribute this remarkable growth on the mainland to the still low market penetration rate in China.
At the end of last year, the mobile phone penetration rate was only 6.7 per cent. Analysts expect the pace of sales of mobile phones here to pick up since the Ministry of Information Industry recently did away with the mobile phone subscription fee of about 600 yuan (about US$71.68). Already, owning a mobile phone is no longer seen as a luxury here.
The ministry predicts mobile phone output on the mainland of as much as 200 million units by the end of this year. This could make it the world's biggest mobile phone producer.
Three big multinationals, Motorola, Nokia, and Ericsson still dominate the mainland's mobile phone market, with their 65 per cent share of both production and sales. But Germany's Siemens could change that market landscape fairly soon.
Siemens, which is the No 4 mobile phone maker on the mainland, announced earlier this week that it would increase its mobile phone output here by 40 per cent, to 15 million, next year.
Those big three mobile phone manufacturers also exported 7.5 million handsets during the first five months, accounting for 85 per cent of the mainland's total mobile phone exports for the period. |
