China’s smartphone sales continue to rise

20 Nov, 2007 by CommsDay
China saw a 5.2 per cent increase in smartphone sales, reaching sales volume of 6.388 million sets in Q3 and gaining US$2.23 billion sales revenue, increasing 11.3 per cent on a month-on-month basis, said CCID Consulting.
The firm put down the highs in sales volume to students buying phones during the summer vacation and the promotions during the Chinese national holiday.
CCID also reported that Symbian OS retained its lead over other operating systems, holding nearly 70 per cent market share with sales volume reaching 4.416 million handsets, due to Nokia’s ongoing popularity in China.
Windows Mobile posted 52 per cent growth rate attributed in part to the popularity of Windows Mobile-based phones from Motorola, Samsung, Lenovo and Dopod, though still representing just over 5 per cent of the market.
Conversely, although Linux still held more than 25 per cent of the market, sales volume dropped partly due to the declining sales of Motorola’s Linux-based models, which accounted for 70 per cet of the Linux-based smartphone market, the market analyst said.
The market share for Palm operating system phones is down 52.6 per cent. The reason is that the manufacturers adopting the Palm operating system are not the mainstream of the market, CCID reported.
CCID also added that market share of phones with large screens continually increase. However, while smartphones with a screen size larger than two inches make up more than 90 per cent of the market, their share is actually decreasing. Demand for screen sizes larger than 2.4 inches has decreased nearly 13 per cent, which the firm has speculated on account of customers wanting smaller, lighter phones.
Looking forward, CCID Consulting forecasts that China's smart phone market will keep increasing in 2007Q4 and the sales volume will increase five per cent while the sales revenue will increase eight per cent.
Promotional campaigns are also expected to be the key to a manufacturer’s success in the smart phone market in 2007Q3.

China-based Gome to purchase five million handsets in 2008, say sources

14 Nov, 2007
China-based Gome Electrical Appliances Holding has signed contracts to purchase a total of five million handsets from international leading vendors as well as from handset makers in China, according to industry sources.
The purchase contracts are part of Gome's plan to expand its share in the handset market in China, said the sources, noting that Gome aims to boost its share from the current 6.7% to 10% in 2008 and to further expand the market share to 15% within three years.
Under the contracts, Gome, in 2008, will buy as many as 3.3 million handsets from international leading handset vendors, including 1.1 million units from Nokia, 1.0 million units from Samsung Electronics, 700,000 units from Motorola and 500,000 units from Sony Ericsson, the sources indicated.
Gome will also purchase another 1.7 million handsets from China-based handset makers next year, including 500,000 units from TCL (including Alcatel-branded models), 400,000 units each from Lenovo and Amoi Electronics and 200,000 units each from Haier and Chinabird (formerly Ningbo Bird), the sources added.
Gome's strategy to purchase handsets directly from the vendors could affect efforts by Taiwan-based distributor Synnex Technology International to expand its handset sales in China, according to the sources.