Handset market updates

China's National Development and Reform Commission is reporting, that the country will produce 500 to 600 million handsets this year - which is half of the world's production.

The report is stating, that during the first eight months of 2007, there were 348 million mobile handsets produced in mainland China - an increase of 28 percent. They also predict that the country will have 540 million subscribers by the end of the year - a growth of 20 percent, compared to 2006.

The news come together with another announcement by China's State Council, stating that they are abolishing the licensing system for cellphone production and sales, which was introduced in 1998. Previously, all the manufacturers had to aquire an aproval by Ministry of Information Industry (MII), before they could build any phones, with strict quotas set. Up to 90 licenses have been issued between 1998 and 2006. Under the new system, the only requirement will be to send the handsets to MII for quality checks.

The news should be great for the new manufacturers, but it will probably have a very negative affect on the well established international brands, due to increased competition. According to Gartner Inc, currently around 50% of the China's market is controlled by Nokia, Motorola and Samsung, while the rest is taken up by local companies - such as Lenovo and Bird in the lead.

It is quite interesting, that the Chinese manufacturers, except for ZTE and Huawei, have not been able to establish themselves in the foreign markets as of yet - but make sure to post your cellphone wholesale offers and requests, to build your contacts, as it looks like this is the future - especially with Samsung announcing that up to a million phones monthly will have 90% of the manufacturing process in China by their contractors.

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