Sales of brand-name GSM-based mobile handsets amounted to 44 million units in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 42 million in the first quarter of 2008. Branded CDMA-based wireless phone sales reached 5.8 million units in the first quarter, up 200 percent from the same period in 2008. Domestic white-box handset sales amounted to about 8 million units during the same period, compared to 10 million in the first quarter of 2008.
iSuppli forecasts that China’s domestic handset market will amount to 238.9 million units in 2009, up 7.8 percent from 2008.
The figure presents iSuppli’s forecast of China’s domestic mobile handset market, based on unit shipments.
iSuppli: Forecast of China’s Domestic Handset Market Unit Shipments, 2009-2013 (Millions of Units)
Source: iSuppli, June 2009“The first quarter is typically strong for China’s mobile-phone market due to purchases made for the Lunar New Year Holiday in January,” said Kevin Wang, director, China research, for iSuppli.
“At the same time, shipments were further boosted by demand generated from China’s stimulus programs that encourage the purchasing of electronic products. Ongoing reductions in voice-service fees and declines in average handset selling prices will assure stable growth in China’s mobile subscribers during the next five years.”
The net addition of mobile subscribers for the nation’s three wireless operators—China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom—amounted to 20 million, 5 million and 4 million, respectively, during the first quarter.
Tianyu takes third rank in Q1
Local brand Tianyu in the first quarter surpassed Motorola to become the third largest mobile handset supplier in domestic sales. Nokia and Samsung remain the leaders in the domestic market, with market shares of 34 percent and 21 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, Motorola and Sony Ericsson have continued to lose market share during the past four quarters, while
local-brand OEMs such as Goinee and OPPO have continuously gained market share.
In terms of total handset shipments, ZTE in the first quarter became the largest Chinese handset OEM, with 7.2 million units shipped. Rival Huawei shipped 6.6 million handset units, putting it in the No.-2 position in the market.
Huawei, however, is the largest data card supplier in the world, and its data card shipments reached 5.1 million units in the first quarter this year. iSuppli believes that ZTE and Huawei will continue to grab market share from the international top five, especially in the developing countries.
Mobile phones get smart
With the introduction of 3G services in the country by China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, 3G service brands dubbed G3, e-surfing and WO are being promoted by the Chinese telecom operators. At present, data cards and netbooks are the main products offered by operators for 3G service users, but iSuppli expects growth in the domestic 3G handset market to accelerate in 2010.
With smart phones lining up to become the hottest mobile handset products during the next two years, operators also hope to leverage smart phones to promote 3G services in China.
For its part, China Mobile has cooperated with local handset makers to develop an Android-based TD-SCDMA smart phone named OPhone. In a parallel move, China Unicom has joined the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), while most leading Chinese handset makers are developing smart phones based on the Windows Mobile or Android operating systems.
Digital mobile TV is one of the most popular features for mobile handsets. China Mobile and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) will jointly promote TD-SCDMA terminals using the China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB) function in China. Beyond CMMB, Wi-Fi, GPS and NFC will become new popular features in China.
