Business
Android drives phone makers
By Lian Mo (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-01 11:27
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BEIJING - China's phone makers are increasingly becoming smitten with Android.
China-based companies such as Lenovo Group Ltd, China Mobile and China Telecom are grabbing bigger shares of the smartphone market by using Google's open-source operating system (OS).
Domestic brands ofsmartphonesinChina's smartphone market have increased from about 13 percent in the first quarter to 22.7 percent in the third quarter, most of them using Android, according to Analysys, an information technology consulting firm. The market share is calculated by units of phones produced.
Lenovo, a computer technology firm in China, launched its Android-based smartphone LePhone in May. Chen Danqing, Lenovo's marketing director, said that the LePhone is selling well and it will continue to release Android-based smartphones in the future.
Lenovo's share in the smartphone market increased to 4.1 percent in the third quarter from 3.9 percent a quarter ago.
In August 2009, China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by number of subscribers, released its Open Mobile System based on Android.
China Telecom, another operator in China, has cooperated with Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp, China's two major telecom equipment makers, to release several low-end smartphones based on the Android OS after September.
Coolpad, a line of computers made by Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific, will have 10 releases of Android-based smartphones at the end of this year.
"There is a huge potential for domestic smartphones, especially the low- and middle-end ones," said Lu Libin, analyst of Analysys International. "The open platform and low cost of the Android system lower the technological threshold for local manufacturers and facilitate the development of domestic smartphones."
"Local firms are likely to gain a bigger market share in the near future. But international brands will be able to register higher profits as their customers are mostly with greater spending power," said Liu Liang, analyst of Internet consulting company iResearch.
According to Analysys, China's smartphone sales was just above 17.7 million units in the third quarter, a 218 percent increase year-on-year.
The global sales in the third quarter are about 80.5 million units, 96 percent increase year-on-year, said Gartner, a technology research company.
Smartphone users inChinahave reached 88 million, which is only about 10.7 percent ofChina's 823 million mobile phone users and 31.8 percent of 277 million mobile Internet users.
"GivenChina's population size, the growth of smartphone market will only accelerate," Lu said.
China Daily
