BEIJING—Datang Telecom has cut the price of its CDMA handsets by 20 percent to 1,980 yuan (US$239.22). They are the first CDMA handsets in China priced below 2,000 yuan (US$241.63).
China Unicom Vice President Lu Jianguo predicted the CDMA service will start to boom when handset prices drop further below US$200.
Meanwhile, more Chinese home appliances makers are starting production of GSM handsets. Thirty companies are licensed to produce GSM handsets, while 19 are allowed to manufacture CDMA mobile phones.
In related news, Jean-Claude Andreani, managing director of the French wireless developer Wavecom was quoted in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post as saying that China’s handset manufacturers raised their share of the domestic market from 3 percent in 1999 to 13 percent last year.
He expects local suppliers to move into the global market as they grow larger.
TCL became China’s top local brand in only three years. The Hong Kong newspaper further noted that Wavecom generates about 80 percent of its revenue from China, selling wireless modules to local handset makers.
