BEIJING-Telecom consultancy BDA China published a new report titled “Mobile Subscribers in China 2002,” based on a survey of 2,000 people between the ages of 18 and 50 in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang.
BDA China found that 70 percent of urban mobile subscribers have used some form of mobile data services. One-fifth of new subscribers plan to spend less than 1,000 yuan (US$121) on a new handset. A majority of short message service (SMS) users are female. The consultancy also concluded that China Unicom’s customers are significantly less loyal than China Mobile’s subscribers.
“Any handset manufacturer with global ambitions has to include China in their plans, and market growth is shifting to low-end phones,” BDA associate Zhang Dongming commented.
He added that consolidation of the dozens of handset manufacturers in China is inevitable. “There is simply not enough room for this many players,” he said.
BDA’s Web site is http://www.bdachina.com.
