According to MIC (Market Intelligence Center), an ICT industry research institute based in Taipei, shipment volume of the Chinese mobile phone industry is expected to reach 147.1 million units in the third quarter of 2007 and 165.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2007, representing 21.7% and 23.2% year-on-year growth respectively.

In the second quarter of 2007, the Chinese mobile phone industry's shipment volume reached 132.2 million units, up 8.7% sequentially and 23.1% year-on-year. The total shipment volume of the Chinese mobile phone industry in the first half of 2007 topped 253.8 million units, up 25.6% over the first half a year earlier. With worldwide mobile phone shipment volume hitting approximately 264 million units in the second quarter, China's share of total shipments reached approximately 50% in the second quarter.

Owing to Nokia's strong global shipment performance and robust demand in China's domestic market, the Chinese mobile phone industry's GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) shipment volume reached 114.9 million units, up 5.4% sequentially and 17% year-on-year. The shipment figure, however, did not live up to expectations due to sluggish shipments of Motorola and its production partner Compal-C. Consequently, GSM shipment share in the Chinese mobile phone industry slipped to 87% in the second quarter, down from 89.7% in the previous quarter and 91.5% a year earlier.

According to MIC industry analyst Shan-Tung Wu, Nokia continued to outsource more of its CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) mobile phones and Qualcomm launched the value-line QSC-series CDMA chipsets, which significantly increased the price competitiveness of CDMA mobile phones in emerging markets, such as India, the Middle East, and Africa. This prompted mobile phone makers such as Calcomp, Haier, Hisense, Huawei, Jingpeng, LG, TCL, and ZTE to ship more CDMA mobile phones tagged under US$50 for emerging markets. Meanwhile, China Unicom also began buying value-line CDMA mobile phones.

With first-tier vendors such as Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson lacking value-line CDMA product lines, Chinese firms and LG have made great efforts to tap the emerging market demand for these phones. This boosted the Chinese industry's CDMA phone shipment volume to 13.9 million units in the second quarter of 2007, up 37.2% sequentially and 165.5% year-on-year. Shipment share in the Chinese mobile phone industry jumped to 10.6%, up from the first quarter's 7.8% and 4.9% a year earlier.

More information can be found in the following MIC reports:  The Chinese Mobile Phone Industry, 3Q 2007

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About MIC

Market Intelligence Center, based in Taipei, Taiwan, was founded in 1987. MIC is Taiwan's premier IT industry research and consulting firm providing intelligence, in-depth analysis, and strategic consulting services on global IT product and technology trends, focusing on markets and industries in Asia-Pacific. MIC is part of the Institute for Information Industry. https://mic.iii.org.tw/english