Business News Holding

Tag: mobile-sales

  • China Mobile Boosts Subsidies While Waiting For Conclusion of iPhone Deal


    China Mobile, the world’s leading phone company, is set to use a lot of money on subsidies in the coming year as it endeavors to lure its customers to the new speedy service and boost the sale of smartphones by as much as 42%.

    The company is planning to sell 220 million smart devices in 2014 as compared to 155 million that was sold this year. Xi Guohua, the Chairman of China mobile indicated this in remarks made on the carrier’s micro blog account. The official China Daily newspaper reported that China mobile is yet to conclude a legal agreement with the Apple Company to sell the iPhone.

    Guohua Xi indicated that subsidies for handsets are set to expand from the 27 billion CNY or $4.4 billion that was spent in 2013. The carrier also hopes to get much more of the 759 million customers to the faster network with more expensive voice & data plans.

    According to the official Xinhua News Agency, China mobile has entered into agreements with handset manufactures Xiaomi Corp and Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) to provide smartphones running on the fourth-generation network.

    At a developer’s conference in Guangzhou, CEO Li Yue told developers that the 4G service provides a new future and will popularize different types of applications innovations. On December 4th, China mobile got regulatory approval to start commercial services on the 4G network.

    The China Daily wrote that Xi indicated that China mobile hopes to conclude the agreement with Apple as soon as possible. Apple, which currently does not make handsets that are compatible with the China mobile’s 3G networks, has agreed to make an iPhone that will run on the 4G network.

  • Handset Shipments Expected To Drop 20% in 2009


    While cellphone shipments and subscription numbers have held up relatively well during the global recession, the outlook is more tumultuous for the mobile industry.

    In-Stat forecasts that both handset sales and subscriptions will take a hit this year.

    Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst, said that subscriptions, however, are expected to weather the financial crisis better than handset shipments.

    "People that are unemployed are less likely to replace their cellphones, and businesses will not pay for cellphone subscriptions for employees they’ve let go," he said.

    "Even those with existing subscriptions are more willing to ‘make do’ with their existing handsets.

    "As the wireless industry matures, replacement handsets make up three-quarters of handset sales; handset sales are now particularly vulnerable to economic contraction."

    Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

    • After experiencing a 19.3 per cent growth in subscriptions in 2008, subscription growth will fall by more than half to 8.9 per cent in 2009 and by 6.3 per cent in 2010.
    • Worldwide, In-Stat is forecasting a 20.5 per cent drop in handset shipments for 2009 compared to 2008.
    • It will take until 2011 for shipments to regain robust growth, a forecasted 9.6 per cent increase.
    • Middle East and Africa will have 75.2 million WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ subscriptions by 2013.
    • SC-SCDMA subscriptions in Asia Pacific will rise more than ten-fold between 2009 and 2013.