Re: Nokia & China
Finnish cellphone giant Nokia said on Monday it expects revenues from its handset sales in China to grow by more than 20 percent this year.By introducing new high-end models, Nokia hopes to win market share and boost the average selling price of its phones in China, David Hartley, general manager of Nokia's mobile phone unit in China, told Reuters in Beijing.That would allow Nokia's revenues to grow faster than the total market for handsets in China, which executives at the company said earlier this month would grow by at least 10-15 percent this year. "We expect our revenue growth to be greater than 20 percent this year in China," Hartley said in an interview.
>> China Adds Hefty 5.1M Mobile Users In January
Reuters staff
25 February 2002
China, the world's biggest mobile phone market, added 5.1 million cellular customers in January, marking a return to growth rates seen in 2001 before a late-year skid, China's Ministry of Information Industry said.
The January additions bring China's mobile-phone customer count to 149.9 million, the MII said on its website.
According to Nomura International, the vigorous growth was driven heavily by the unlisted provincial networks owned by the parents of duopoly giants China Mobile (Hong Kong) and China Unicom Ltd.
Nomura said in a research note that the subscriber surge might be attributed to a push by carriers to boost user numbers in unlisted provincial networks before they are acquired by their listed brethren. Both China Mobile and China Unicom plan to buy unlisted affiliates from their parent firms this year.
Investor worries over a slowdown in China's mobile industry growth were fanned late last year when MII numbers showed just four million net new users were added in November.
In the first 10 months of 2001, China added an average of 5.08 million mobile customers each month.
Still, average revenues per user (ARPUs) are expected to continue declining as mobile phones are adopted by less-affluent Chinese, nearly all of whom choose comparatively cheap prepaid calling plans.
Shares in China Mobile fell 1.97 percent to HK$22.40 on Monday, while China Unicom shares were down 0.66 percent to close at HK$7.50. The Hang Seng Index finished down by 1.58 percent.
Reflecting strong Chinese demand, Finnish cellphone giant Nokia said on Monday it expects revenues from its handset sales in China to grow by more than 20 percent this year.
By introducing new high-end models, Nokia hopes to win market share and boost the average selling price of its phones in China, David Hartley, general manager of Nokia's mobile phone unit in China, told Reuters in Beijing.
That would allow Nokia's revenues to grow faster than the total market for handsets in China, which executives at the company said earlier this month would grow by at least 10-15 percent this year.
"We expect our revenue growth to be greater than 20 percent this year in China," Hartley said in an interview. <<
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