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To: Keith Feral who wrote (114484)	2/26/2002 11:32:01 AM
From: jackmore	Respond to of 152472

China: Soaring Mobile Data Challenges Bearish Outlook February 26, 2002 Investors may have been too bearish on the outlook for growth in China's mobile phone market, according to recent data. There were more than 5.09 million new mobile phone users last month, bringing the country's total users to 149.9 million, according to Ministry of Information Industry (MII) statistics. Joe Locke, telecommunications analyst at ABN Amro, said that although there were widespread fears China's market was reaching saturation, last month's subscriber numbers showed the market was still strong. The net addition last month was slightly higher than last year's monthly average of 4.95 million users. "This illustrates no material decline for the first month of 2002, despite some claims in the market to the contrary," Mr Locke said. Last year, China added 59.54 million new mobile phone subscribers to reach 144.81 million. Of the new subscribers, 37.29 million signed with China Mobile Communications, while the remaining 22.25 million signed with China Unicom Group. The MII has forecast that the mainland market will grow by another 55 million new users this year. Based on last month's figure, the mainland mobile phone market could easily meet and even exceed the telecom regulator's target - regarded as a guidance figure. "The officially published numbers should be viewed more as a floor under which the MII likely feel embarrassed if they do not hit, rather than the real growth target they have been receiving credit for," Mr Locke said. The latest MII data showed the telecoms sector generated 26.32 billion yuan (about HK$ 24.66 billion) revenue last month, representing 12.5 per cent year -on-year growth. Shares in China Mobile and China Unicom - the only two mobile phone operators in the country - have been heavily sold down by investors on concerns of an expected increase in competition and a slowdown in market growth. However, ABN Amro has taken a contrary view by forecasting China Mobile will post full-year earnings above expectations and that China Unicom will also demonstrate strong growth. China Unicom is targeting 7.2 billion yuan in profit this year, the Xinhua News Agency yesterday quoted company president Wang Jianzhou as saying. He also forecasts the firm will generate 52 billion yuan revenue from its core businesses, representing a 38 per cent growth rate from the previous year. The mobile carrier is also forecasting it will pick up more than 20 million subscribers this year. China Mobile has a revenue growth target of 10.5 per cent for this year, aiming to reach 148.8 billion yuan. wirelessweek.com

To: Keith Feral who wrote (114484)	2/26/2002 11:42:16 AM
From: Hepps	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 152472

It seems to me that with Wintel pushing to get in, they're going to be producing the kind of new products that take advantage of 3G, and evolve from a pure "cell phone". Lets hope they succeed. Who's willing to bet against them? iht.com PARIS Hoping to repeat what they have done in the personal computer industry, Microsoft and Intel unveiled an alliance Tuesday that could extend the dominance of their "Wintel" platform to the multibillion dollar cell-phone industry, an area where the two companies have had little success so far. . In a move that challenges the wireless industry's traditional reliance on custom-made technology, Microsoft and Intel, along with the U.S. chipmaker Texas Instruments, announced a joint strategy based on "templates" - combining Microsoft's software and Intel's chips - for use by makers of mobile gadgets and software developers. The companies hope enough vendors will adopt these templates to make them standards for the industry. . Although latecomers to the wireless party dominated by the likes of Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola, the two companies nonetheless hope to capitalize on the success of Microsoft's Windows operating system and Intel's processors, which have become the standard for 80 percent of the PC market. The companies made their announcements Tuesday at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France, the largest European trade show for the wireless industry. . The battle lines are being drawn. Backed by a massive $3.8 billion research and development budget, Intel has invested heavily in chips for mobile devices. The company last week introduced a new chip that will enable cell phones and handheld computers to download short video clips and music. And Nokia, the biggest cell-phone maker, Tuesday announced its own deal with Texas Instruments to offer a standard kit of semiconductor hardware and software for so-called "smart phones" - cell phones with PC-like software programs and e-mail functions. . "It is not our intention to dominate this market," said Mike Wehrs, director of standards and technology at Microsoft's Mobility Group. "But what we see taking place is the traditional evolution from one that is full of vertically integrated players toward a more horizontal structure." . Until now, most mobile phone companies have been vertically integrated - that is, they have controlled all the different aspects of making, selling, and delivering wireless equipment. That was fine when the cell phones themselves were the main driver of industry growth and voice and, later, text messaging were seen as the main uses for wireless devices. . But over the last 18 months, analysts say, the mobile industry has been undergoing a strategic shift. As the market for wireless handsets has reached saturation, the focus has migrated toward software, services, content and applications - areas beyond the core expertise of most cell phone makers. . Just this week, Motorola said it would team up with wireless operators in Europe to offer a chat capability, games and other software. . "This brings in new vendors such as Microsoft to compete against Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola on the one hand and the mobile operators on the other," wrote Adnaan Ahmad, an analyst at Merrill Lynch Co., in a research note. . Microsoft is also challenging Symbian, the British maker of the dominant operating system for mobile phones and other wireless devices. Symbian, which is jointly owned by Nokia and several other leading cell-phone makers, "is designed with mobility in mind," said Pekka Isosonppi, a spokesman for Nokia. "The industry has accepted it as is the standard for smart phones." . Indeed, of the top five leading cell phone makers, so far only Samsung of South Korea has said it would use Microsoft's Windows-powered Smartphone 2002 software. The company is expected to introduce a Microsoft-based product at the end of this year. . Wehr of Microsoft rejected the depiction of the company as a wireless also-ran. "We are not starting from such an underdog position," he said, adding that more than 6.5 million programmers write applications for Windows - compared to fewer than 100,000 developers of Symbian-enabled devices. PARIS Hoping to repeat what they have done in the personal computer industry, Microsoft and Intel unveiled an alliance Tuesday that could extend the dominance of their "Wintel" platform to the multibillion dollar cell-phone industry, an area where the two companies have had little success so far.