In contrast with the leadership of Symbian and the potent growth of Windows Mobile, mobile Linux witnessed a diminution in 2007, which lend to Motorola’s poor market performance. Chinese handset vendors like ZTE, Hair, and TCL has been adopted mobile Linux with low non-recurring engineering (NRE) and royalty fees.
However, the miss of applicable third-party applications and the immaturity of its ecosystem negatively wallop growth. In addition, our consumer survey shows that Chinese consumers attach high importance to the OS when purchasing smartphones, and when compared with Symbian and Windows Mobile, mobile Linux has the least name recognition in China, which further impacts growth.
On the flip side, Google’s Linux-based Android, TD-SCDMA, and mobile Linux’s open-source features will be big drivers to mobile Linux in China.
We prognosis that in 2012 total shipments of mobile Linux smartphones in China will reach 8.4 million.
This report first analyzes China’s smartphone market, including market size, players, and market share by vendor and by OS. Then it describes the intact value chain of mobile Linux including structure, business model, and profile of key players. This report includes the advantages/disadvantages of mobile Linux and market drivers and barriers. Finally, it presents a forecast of shipments for the mobile Linux smartphone in China from 2008 to 2012.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Long Term Evolution (LTE) will win over ultra mobile broadband (UMB) and Wimax as the mainstream technology in the race for 4G, suggests a ZTE executive.
Even CDMA operators will choose LTE over Qualcomm’s UMB, due to economies of scale, said Shen Donglin, VP of wireless technology at ZTE USA.
LTE is the 4G standard for GSM and W-CDMA networks.
Shen said China Telecom, which recently bought the Unicom’s CDMA business, had decided to ditch UMB in favor of LTE. Chairman Wang Xiaochu says the company will initially upgrade the CDMA network to EV-DO Rev A and eventually migrate to LTE.
Shen said China Telecom is just one of a string of CDMA carriers around the world, such as Verizon Wireless, which will begin testing LTE next year.
“This is a global trend: CDMA is shrinking and the economies of scale between CDMA and GSM cannot be compared,” he told the Show Daily. “CDMA as a 2G technology will continue for while to support voice service, but at the end of the day the majority of [EV-DO] operators will eventually go for LTE, not UMB.”
While Wimax is gaining traction, Shen suggesed the opportunity for Wimax remains small because it’s more “vendor-driven” and doesn’t yet support full mobility.
“Wimax will be a technology for niche markets, as such fixed replacement, and not likely to be widely adopted,” he said.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Indian state-run telecoms firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has invited bids for a contract valued at over USD6.5 billion to supply it with 93 million GSM lines. The company’s director for finance SD Saxena said global equipment vendors such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Motorola, Nortel Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei and ZTE are expected to participate in the bidding process. Bids will be opened on 16 July. ‘It should take about six to eight months to award the tenders,’ Saxena said.
The Indian government has stipulated that only those companies with a turnover of USD2 billion or above for the last two years, and a successful track record of rolling out over 20 million GSM lines, will be permitted to tender bids. The maximum number of lines that a single company may be awarded has been set at 50 million.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
India’s state-run telecom firm BSNL has invited bids for a contract valued at over €4.2 billion (US$6.5 billion) to supply 93 million GSM lines.
“At about US$70 [€45.33] per line, the tender could be worth over US$6.5 billion (€4.2 billion],” company director S. D. Saxena was quoted as saying.
He also said equipment makers such as LM Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Motorola, Nortel Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei Technology and ZTE are expected to participate in the bidding process, the Reuters report said.
All the bids will be opened on July 16.
“It should take six to eight months to award the tenders,” he said.
Unlisted BSNL is trying to expand its network to compete with rivals including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar.
Saxena said the 93 million GSM lines would include 3G, services, “depending on the release of spectrum by the government,” while the remaining will be used for 2G.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
MNT Nigeria has formally launched a DVB-H based mobile television service to its subscribers. Ten channels are to be made available, provided the customer owns a specially designed ZTE handset and suitable SIM card. The service will be on offer in Lagos and Abuja initially.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Worldwide handset sales increased 16% to 1.153 billion units in 2007, driven by rising demand in emerging markets, says Gartner.
Nokia, the biggest phone vendor, increased its market share to 37.8%, up from three percentage points from a year earlier. In a disastrous last quarter, Motorola fell nearly ten points to 11.9% over the previous year.
Strong sales in China and India lifted Chinese handset supplier ZTE into top ten for the first time with a 1.2% market share. But the popularity of high-end BlackBerry and iPhone devices also put smartphone vendors RIM and Apple in the top ten. Taiwan’s BenQ, France’s Sagem and China-based Bird were the three displaced from the top group.
Gartner predicted growth to decline to 10% in 2008, with western Europe and North America contributing to just 30% of sales.
Gartner mobile devices research director Carolina Milanes said the strength of emerging market demand meant that handset sales were likely to be “relatively immune to a recession” in the US and western Europe.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Worldwide sales of mobile phones surpassed 1.15 billion units in 2007, according to market research firm Gartner. The company also said that three new companies entered the top ten in sales for the first time including Apple with its iPhone.
Apple was joined in the top ten by ZTE and Research in Motion with its popular BlackBerry device.
Nokia is leading the way in mobile phone sales with a 37.8 percent market share, followed by Motorola (14.3 percent), Samsung (13.4 percent), Sony Ericsson (8.8 percent) and LG (6.8 percent). Total worldwide phone sales increased by 16 percent from 2006, according to Gartner.
While 2007 was a good year for mobile phone-makers, the same does not hold true for 2008’s outlook. “After another strong year, we expect the growth in sales of mobile devices to end users will decelerate in 2008 and fall to about 10 per cent growth as mature markets become more saturated,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner.
Apple introduced the iPhone last June and has sold over 4 million units since, including 2.3 million units in the last quarter alone.
At the Goldman Sachs investor conference earlier this week, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook, said the company is confident it will make its goal of selling 10 million phones by the end of 2008. Cook also said that Apple is not married to the single carrier model of selling iPhones, although that is the strategy the company has adopted to this point.
Apple is holding a special event in Cupertino, Calif. next week where it will unveil a new software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone, which will allow third-party developers to write applications for the device. This will take away one major complaint from consumers of not having the option to install applications on the iPhone.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- February 29th, 2008
- 12:15 pm
Apple, Research In Motion and ZTE took places among the world’s top 10 mobile phone makers in 2007, new research from Gartner Inc. claims.
Despite being available in only four markets — the U.S., U.K., Germany and France — the iPhone transformed Apple into the world’s 10th largest handset maker in the fourth quarter of 2007, the analysts said.
RIM took sixth place, while low-cost handset manufacturer ZTE, which specializes in delivering devices to emerging markets, took seventh place.
Apple holds 0.6% of the world market, while RIM has 1.2%. Motorola saw its share fall to 11.9% from 21.5%. Nokia, at 40.4%, and Samsung, at 13.4%, continue to dominate global handset sales.
Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi observed, “The global mobile devices market will remain relatively immune to a recession in the U.S. and Western European economies, as the majority of growth in 2008 will come from emerging markets. The mature Western Europe and North America markets are driven by operator contract terms and replacement cycles and will account for just 30% of the global mobile devices market in 2008.”
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- February 4th, 2008
- 1:20 pm
Six handset makers have been awarded post-trial period access licences to China’s 3G network, reports Xinhua. The licences will immediately give Lenovo, ZTE, Hisense, Samsung, LG and New Postcom opportunities to win procurement deals from China Mobile. The Chinese mobile operator plans to purchase 30,000 TD-SCDMA mobile phones and 10,000 data cards for 3G network trials. Three major Chinese phone operators China Mobile, China Telecom and China Netcom are conducting network trials of TD-SCDMA in ten cities.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- January 24th, 2008
- 9:31 am
Romanian mobile operator Zapp selects Chinese communications equipment provider ZTE as its supplier for the development of its 3G network. ZTE has been selected by Zapp as its partner and supplier for the expansion of its current 450 MHz network and the rollout of the 2100MHz network. Under the partnership agreement, ZTE will provide equipment and services to both Zapp Romania and Zapp Portugal. The 3G network services will be available in Romania in 19 cities starting from June. Zapp (Telemobil) was recently acquired by investment group Saudi Oger.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
TD-SCDMA - a new goal for mobile linux in china
