Amoi Electronics expected its loss for the year will exceed 460
million yuan (US$62.16 million), which the company lost in the
first nine months, Shanghai-listed Amoi said in a recent
statement.
Xiamen-based Amoi previously expected to have a profitable
fourth quarter due to the launch of new handsets with stock and GPS
(global positioning system) functions. Now the company expected to
lose money in the past quarter, Amoi said in a statement to the
Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Amoi's former president Li Xiaozhong resigned two weeks ago and
the company appointed Lu Zhenyu in his place.
Lu attributed the loss in the fourth quarter to fierce
competition in the domestic market, where Nokia and Sony Ericsson
dominate.
"It was a tough year for the first-generation homegrown handset
makers, like Ningbo Bird and Amoi, squeezed by both overseas and
home-grown rivals," said Sandy Shen, a Gartner telecommunications
analyst based in Shanghai.
"Foreign firms including Nokia still had the highest market
share and new Chinese stars surged such as Tianyu and ZTE," Shen
added.
In the domestic market, the era in which a successful model can
make a firm survive has passed, industry insiders said.
The low-cost phone strategy and expansion in rural areas also
eroded homegrown firms' profit margin, according to Li Xuefang, an
analyst at CCID Consulting, a Beijing-based research firm.
China's average phone price was 1,142 yuan in 2007 compared with
1,408 yuan in the previous year.
(Shanghai Daily January 3, 2008)
