China’s powerful mobile phone sector has put the country at the forefront of the global scene. An increasingly wealthy middle-class, tech-savvy youth and growing rural users have propelled sales in China.
People's Daily Online published news based on statistics released by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) that put the total number of phone users in China by the end of May 2007 at over 859 Million, in part owing to the surging rural market.
There were around 497 Million mobile phone users and 375 Million fixed-line subscribers. Ever since the second half of 2006, there has been a rise in number of the rural mobile phone users. The Ministry revealed that new registrations made during January-May 2007 was at about 1.7 Million taking the total rural phone subscribers beyond 118.1 Million.
The Ministry agreed that the rural market helped in the fast growth of the sector and nearly half of its subscribers increase resulted because of the enlargement of the rural market as an outcome of its efforts in developing services and products keeping the rural customers in mind.
The boost in mobile handset sales has its roots in the flourishing Chinese global economy, which led to the improvement from the existing phones to better models. Companies like Nokia and Motorola have invested heavily to establish manufacturing and distribution networks across the country because of China’s growing middle-class and the tech-savvy youth.
The initial five months of the year saw China’s mobile phone production approach 226 Million, a 33.7 % increase from the previous year, as per the data from the Ministry of Information Technology. China’s mobile market is also increasing due to steady inflow of foreign mobile phone companies into the market. Foreign players including Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson are firmly established in the handset market and they still rule the market.
Encouraged by the speedy growth in China’s mobile sector, the country’s mobile industry has introduced mobile TV. The report by Chinamobiletv estimated that by 2020, the Chinese mobile TV market would have 22 Million users.
RNCOS research analyst says, “The Chinese mobile manufacturers developed different strategies to increase the mobile sales. The stable growth of China’s mobile industry has made it the strongest growing reason globally, overtaking Europe as the number one market”.
Related Market Research Reports:
China Telecom Analysis (2008-2012)
European Mobile Market Scenario to 2012
Emerging Rural Mobile Market in India
