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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (4522)	11/13/2000 9:37:52 PM
From: Cooters	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196764

Konka to Make Qualcomm-Standard Cell Phones in China by 2002 --From AOL.-- Cooters Shenzhen, Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Konka Group Co., which makes 20 percent of the TVs sold in China, plans to produce more phones than televisions by 2005, expecting that demand will grow in Asia's No. 1 cell phone market and shore up Konka's profits. The former pig farm, which started making mobile phones last year, plans to make up to 5 million handsets annually by 2003, said Konka Vice President Lin Hanhui. By that time, at least one in six Konka models will use Qualcomm Inc's code-division multiple- access technology, Lin said. ``By 2003, we expect to produce more CDMA equipment than GSM phones,'' said Lin at a press conference in Shenzhen. ``CDMA will be bigger.'' That makes Konka the third company to adopt the CDMA standard in China, where 98 percent of the nation's 60 million cell phones use the European Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM, standard. Six Chinese phone makers, including Konka, Eastern Communications Co. and ZTE Corp. are licensed to make CDMA phones in China. China Unicom Co., runs the country's sole CDMA phone network with about 1 million users in four cities. While Unicom, China's No. 2 mobile service provider, says it will expand the network, no timetable or investment plan has been announced. In China, Qualcomm's CDMA standard lags behind GSM. GSM phones can have removable identity cards, which let users change phones without losing their phone numbers or address lists. CDMA phones, more widely used in South Korea and the Western Hemisphere, are not so adaptable. That's about to change after ZTE Corp last month unveiled a new model of CDMA phones with detachable identity cards. Konka officials said they will follow suit and introduce their first CDMA models with removable identity cards by the end of 2002. Konka is also one of four groups of phone makers that have won licenses to make a new type of cellular phone with access to the Internet. Konka is using Lucent Technologies Inc. chips, software and equipment to make general packet radio services, or GPRS, cell phones. China's Ministry of Information Industry has ordered the four groups to make at least 25,000 phones each, according to an Aug. 22 tender award. It will purchase the phones and sell them to the public to help start the new system, the tender said. Lin declined to comment on its GPRS project with Lucent. Konka's shares fell 0.9 percent in recent trading on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to HK$5.40. Greener Pastures Konka's move away from the color television business comes nearly two decades after it made its first black-and-white ``Cherry'' brand TV. The firm started in 1979 on a pig farm in southern China as the country's first electronics industry joint venture. Hong Kong businessman Lin Zhongqiao put up 49 percent of the initial HK$43 million investment, while a farm run by the Guangdong Provincial Government put up the remaining 51 percent. Sepia photographs of Konka's early years show rows of women manually assembling products such as tape recorders, digital watches and calculators. Konka didn't start making color TVs under its own brand until 1988, when the firm received the last of China's 57 licenses to make TVs. Today, Konka makes 22 percent of China's televisions, and is the only domestic exporter to the U.S. market. Its products are also sold in Australia and parts of Asia. Next year, Konka aims to export to the European Union. The company's earnings were roiled this year by a discount war among the country's TV makers. Konka, which earned 90 percent of its revenues from television sales last year, saw first-half profit slump 41 percent after it slashed prices to boost sales. Sales rose 2.6 percent to 3.7 billion yuan ($447 million). ``Now the weaker appliance makers are being killed off. We will survive this war because we've mastered the technology to make new products, and we can export overseas,'' Lin said. ``Cellular phones will be our next vanguard product.'' Nov/13/2000 21:25 ET