China is likely to produce nearly 500 million mobile phones in
2007, or more than 40 percent of the world's total, sources with
the economic restructuring and operation department of the Ministry
of Information Industry predicted on Tuesday.
The forecast figure is 41 percent higher than the 2006
output.
Of the total production, around 400 million mobile phones will
be exported, the sources added.
However, mobile phones made by Chinese producers saw their
market share in China fall two percentage points from the end of
2006 to 33.8 percent in the first three quarters.
The 38 enterprises from the Chinese mainland sold 78.71 million
GSM (global system of mobile communication) mobile phones in the
nine months, up 10 percent on the same period of last year. The
figure made up 22.6 percent of the country's total. The market
share was equal to only 62.3 percent of that of the Finland-based
Nokia on the mainland.
The sources said since a price war had broken out between
domestic and foreign companies, the Chinese manufacturers began to
lose their former advantages in price.
Meanwhile, the Chinese mobile phone makers failed to command
core technology, which made it difficult for them to reduce
production costs, the sources added.
(Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2007)
