Total Telecom Asia
LG Electronics wins China GPRS handset order
By Total Telecom staff
10 January 2002
LG Electronics (LGE), South Korea's second-largest electronics manufacturer, said on Thursday it had won an order to export 500,000 GPRS handsets to China, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The order, from several Chinese companies LGE declined to name, gives the Korean company a strong foothold in the world's largest mobile phone market. LGE has claimed it is the first Korean company to export the next generation handsets to China.
LG Electronics is also keen to expand its market share for GSM handsets, the world's dominant mobile standard. "We're aiming to establish a concrete base in the GSM market in China and Europe this year," Bloomberg quoted Seo Gi Hong, LGE's vice president for overseas mobile phone business, as saying in a statement. "We hope to become a major supplier in China's mobile-phone market by having a production base there."
LGE said in a statement that it won approval from the Chinese government earlier this week for the local production of CDMA handsets. It plans to invest US$15 million this year followed by an additional US$45 million in the near future in its CDMA joint venture with Langchao Electronic Information Industry Corporation, Yan Tai Development Zone Distribution Center and Cherry S/W to expand the company's production capacity to 100,000 units per month.
The company also said it plans to make six to seven new models of CDMA handsets this year, boasting a UIM (User Identity Module) card to allow roaming. It announced plans to diversify its product line to include more low- to medium-end models and make "concerted R&D efforts in preparation for the advent of color handsets and cdma2000 1x services."
"By receiving government approval for handset production, LGE plans to expand CDMA handset production in China. Our goal is to make LGE the leading handset provider in China's CDMA market," Kiei Hong Suh, executive vice president of LGE Mobile Handset Company, said in a statement.
The company expects the number of CDMA subscribers in China to increase to over 53 million in the next four years, with over 6 million subscribers projected for 2002. |
