Chinese cellphone producers saw their domestic market share
shrink in the first five months of this year to 33.8 percent, down
two percentage points from the end of 2006.
The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) reported on Tuesday
that the lack of crucial technology was the major reason, which
stopped domestic producers from cutting producing cost as they had
to pay high patent fees.
Their low-price strategy failed to work in competing with
foreign rivals, said the MII in a report.
Currently, domestic brands are priced only five to seven percent
lower than similar foreign ones, making it hard to attract
customers with a price advantage.
In addition, international cellphone manufacturers have promoted
more low-price phones since the end of last year. Among nearly 900
types of phones debuted in the first five months, only 36 percent
were produced by domestic players.
China had 34 cellphone producers that produce their own brand
cellphones by May. Among them, only five sold more than two million
cellphones from January to May while 18 sold less than 500,000.
(Xinhua News Agency July 25 2007)
