Both Qualcomm Inc. and Motorola made announcements related to the lucrative Chinese wireless market.
Qualcomm announced it will invest in Chinese wireless handset design company Techfaith Wireless Communication Technology Ltd. as part of the company’s efforts to spur the development of CDMA technology in China. Concurrently, Techfaith Wireless signed a CDMA modem card license agreement with Qualcomm for cdmaOne and CDMA2000 1x/1xEV-DO modem cards.
“Qualcomm is pleased to have Techfaith Wireless become the first independent design house partner in China,” said Jing Wang, senior vice president of Qualcomm and chairman of Qualcomm China. “Our investment in TechFaith Wireless underscores Qualcomm’s commitment to supporting the growing CDMA mobile value chain in China and worldwide.”
Qualcomm said in June 2003 it would invest up to $100 million in early- to mid-stage Chinese companies engaged in the development and commercialization of CDMA-based products, applications and services. Established in July 2002, Techfaith Wireless designs mobile phones and counts more than 600 employees.
Motorola said it has signed an agreement with the Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area to build a new manufacturing plant that will focus on telematics among other concerns.
It will also have manufacturing lines for Motorola’s embedded computing, said the Schaumburg, Ill-based company. The deal has eyes on the burgeoning automotive industry, which grew from 3.46 million vehicles sold in 2002 to 4.1 million units in 2003, according to Global Insight.
