Mobile phone industry in China
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China's mobile phone industry or cell phone industry has high growth rate, raising its share on the global mobile phone market. During 2007, 600 million mobile phones were made in China which accounted for over 25 percent of the global production. China is the largest market in terms of mobile phone subscribers.


History

* In 1987, wireless telephone communication in the modern sense started by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of China, using TACS technology. A nationwide network was completed in the following year. * In 1994, the fixed telephone company ( China Telecom) and two mobile phone telephone companies ( China Mobile and China Unicom) were spun off from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. * In 2002, the fixed telephone company was split into two: China Netcom for
North China North China, or Huabei () is a List of regions of China, geographical region of China, consisting of the provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Part of the larger region of Northern China (''Beifang''), it lies north ...
and China Telecom for
South China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...
* Until 2008, China's mobile phone service was provided by the three companies: ** GSM service from China Mobile ** GSM and CDMA service (begun in 2002) from China Unicom. **
PHS PHS may refer to: Organizations * ''Partido Humanista da Solidariedade'' (Humanist Party of Solidarity), a Brazilian political party * Peninsula Humane Society, for animal welfare in San Mateo County, California, US * Pennsylvania Horticultural ...
service from the two fixed phone companies: China Netcom and China Telecom * In 2008, another reorganization of the telecommunications industry was made a year before the 3G service was granted. * In 2015, China recorded 1.3 billion mobile subscribers in its domestic market. Nearly everyone in the country has a mobile phone. Nearly 29.6 percent of mobile consumers or 386 million users are on the LTE 4G network.


Mobile phone service providers

After the 2008 reorganization of China's telecommunication industry, there are now three mobile phone service providers.


China Mobile

China Mobile () continues the old China Mobile's service, absorbed
China Railway Communications China Mobile Tietong () is a major state-owned basic telecommunications operator in China. Its former name was China Tietong Telecommunications Corporation (abbr. CTT; Chinese language, Chinese: "中国铁通集团有限公司", or abbr. "中国 ...
, and began 3G service using TD-SCDMA, China's disputed own technology.


China Unicom

China Unicom () continues the old China Unicom's GSM service, absorbed the old China Netcom's network of fixed telephones in the north of the Yangtze River in China, and started 3G service using W-CDMA technology.


China Telecom

China Telecom () continues
PHS PHS may refer to: Organizations * ''Partido Humanista da Solidariedade'' (Humanist Party of Solidarity), a Brazilian political party * Peninsula Humane Society, for animal welfare in San Mateo County, California, US * Pennsylvania Horticultural ...
service of the old China Netcom and China Telecom, continues the old China Telecom's network of fixed telephones in the south of the Yangtze River, and began 3G service using
CDMA2000 CDMA2000 (also known as C2K or IMT Multi‑Carrier (IMT‑MC)) is a family of 3G mobile technology standards for sending voice, data, and signaling data between mobile phones and cell sites. It is developed by 3GPP2 as a backwards-compatible ...
technology.


Mobile Phone Industry

Wireless communication is regulated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The mobile phone industry in China has grown to become a large industry, including research of new technology, manufacturing of mobile phones and building of communications networks, contributed by the domestic companies and also foreign companies, such as: *
Datang Telecom Datang Telecom Group (officially Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group) is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications equipment group headquartered in Beijing, China. The group was founded in September 1998 by the China Academy of Telecommuni ...
(Research and development of China's 3G TD-SCDMA technology) * Huawei Technologies *
ZTE ZTE Corporation is a Chinese partially state-owned technology company that specializes in telecommunication. Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. ZTE's core business is wireless, exchange, optic ...
* Alcatel-Lucent * Ericsson *
Nokia-Siemens Networks Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)) is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Corp ...
Huawei Technologies is expected to surpass Nokia-Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent to become the second largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, after Ericsson, in 2009. ZTE and China Mobile have done turnkey mobile phone network projects in Pakistan, Ethiopia, etc.


Mobile Phones


Major mobile phone manufacturers

Mainland China based Companies:- * Haier * Hisense * Huawei *LeEco (former Letv) *
Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, Personal computer, personal computers, ...
(Vibe lineup) *
Meizu Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer based in Zhuhai, Guangdong. Founded in 2003 by Jack Wong, Meizu began as a manufacturer of MP3 players and later MP4 players. In 2008, Meizu moved its focus to smartph ...
* Oppo * OnePlus * Realme *
TCL TCL or Tcl or TCLs may refer to: Business * TCL Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics and appliance company **TCL Electronics, a subsidiary of TCL Technology * Texas Collegiate League, a collegiate baseball league * Trade Centre Limited, a ...
(including Palm) * Vivo * Xiaomi *
ZTE ZTE Corporation is a Chinese partially state-owned technology company that specializes in telecommunication. Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. ZTE's core business is wireless, exchange, optic ...
*Infinix International Companies:- * Asus * HTC *
Motorola Mobility Motorola Mobility LLC, marketed as Motorola, is an American consumer electronics manufacturer primarily producing smartphones and other mobile devices running Android OS, Android. It is a subsidiary of the Chinese multinational technology company ...
(subsidiary of
Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, Personal computer, personal computers, ...
) * Foxconn * Samsung * LG * Apple * Google


Domestics sales

The domestic sales of mobile phone made a breakthrough of 100 million in China in 2006. In 2007, the domestic sales of mobile phone in china were 190 million, increased by 74 percent as compared with 2007. The impetus mainly came from the rapid growth of new mobile phone users and old customers'
upgrading Upgrading is the process of replacing a product with a newer version of the same product. In computing and consumer electronics an upgrade is generally a replacement of computer hardware, hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better ver ...
demands. Of 190 million mobile phones, 140 million were made through formal channels, while the rest were made through informal channels such as
smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...
,
counterfeiting To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
and
renovating Renovation (also called remodeling) is the process of improving broken, damaged, or outdated structures. Renovations are typically done on either commercial or residential buildings. Additionally, renovation can refer to making something new, ...
.


Export volume

The export volume of China's mobile phones added up to a record high of 385 million in 2006, increased by 69.3 percent as compared with 2005. In 2007, this figure reached 483 million, increased by 125.45 percent as compared with 2006. As far as 2006, the export volume had reached US$31.214 billion, increased by 52.47 percent as compared with 2005. The export volume of 2007 was 35.6 billion dollars, increased by 114.01 percent as compared with 2006.


Development trend

Since 2011 smartphones, especially running the open source Android operating system, have become increasingly popular in the Chinese mobile market. By 2016 smart-phones have become the dominant seller in the Chinese market. This is due to the Android system providing the possibility for factories to produce smartphones with increasing ease, which in turn has allowed prices to decrease even to below RMB 1,000 Yuan. These cheap smartphones are also exported to every corner of the world thanks to Chinese internet sales platforms such as aliexpresss.com and DHGate.com, and overseas online sales platforms such as eBay.com and Amazon.com.


Pricing

China's mobile phone market is dominated by products with price under 2000
RMB yuan The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...
(about 300 dollars). Products at this price have accounted for 60 percent of the whole mobile phone market, competing with China's local brands, informal mobile phones and international brands.


Features of China's mobile phones

* Most mobile phone services are prepaid. Pre-payment can be made by buying a card (50 or 100 yuan) and calling the mobile phone provider, or through commercial banks. You can top-up the account via WeChat()/top-up voucher/Alipay()/credit card online everywhere. * There is a clear distinction of mobile phone and mobile phone service in China, unlike some countries such as Japan where the mobile phone is sold by and locked to the mobile phone service companies. This tradition was broken by the 2009 introduction of Apple Inc.'s iPhone. * Stealing of mobile phones and therefore SIM cards is quite common. When a mobile phone is stolen, the owner must visit the mobile phone service provider to cancel the previous card, in order to retain the previous phone number and pre-payment. * A short message (SMS) or duanxin (), usually 0.10 yuan per message (up to 160 alphabetic or 70 Chinese characters), can be sent to any other cell phones across different cell phone service companies, GSM, CDMA or PHS. *
Multimedia Messaging Service Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from a mobile phone over a cellular network. Users and providers may refer to such a message as a PXT, a picture message, or a multimedia ...
(MMS) or caixin () is also available, usually 0.3 yuan per message (up to 50 kilobytes). * A custom ringback tone ("calling", ), usually 5 yuan per month, is an additional service. It is when the called party can send a ringback tone to the calling party music (or any kind of sound) that the called party likes.


See also

* Communications in China * Telecommunications industry in China * *


References

{{Telecommunications Electronics industry in the People's Republic of China Manufacturing in China
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
Telecommunications in China