A forum for Hawaii's
business community to discuss
current events and issues
A forum for Hawaii's
business community to discuss
current events and issues
China set another world record earlier this month with an astounding 207 million mobile phone subscribers. This is a major advancement in comparison to the 150 million users in the United States (ranked No. 2) and 75 million in Japan (No. 3).
China, more comfortable with
capitalism, sets the tone for the
ultimate business symbol:
The mobile phoneBy Tung X. Bui
While this growth is still increasing at a double-digit rate, it is expected to decelerate. This is good reason for the world's top cell phone companies to declare China to be the hotbed of competition with established marketing patterns.
DAVID SWANN / DSWANN@STARBULLETIN.COM Young people aged 21 to 25 tend to use China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator with 135 million customers. Well-educated, well-paid white-collar professionals aged 26 to 35 express a strong inclination for novelty and prefer China Unicom, the country's second largest provider.
According to a senior administrator of China Mobile, approximately 15 million Chinese spent a minimum of $15,000 per account last year on mobile telephony.
Simultaneously, local manufacturers are securing a lion's share of the low-end cell phone market, hoping to sell 25 million more units in 2003, to capture one-third of the Chinese market.
Searching for a winning strategy is, nevertheless, no easy task. Nokia -- the world's no. 1 cell phone provider, selling more than every third handset worldwide -- is redefining its marketing strategies in China since its cell phones with built-in cameras and additional features failed to take off as fast as expected.
Motorola -- which dethroned Nokia in China in 2001 after having lost to them in the Unitets States in 1999 -- is aggressively partnering with Chinese firms to upgrade and expand mobile networks, while exploring new applications and value-added services for their subscriber base.
Japan's Panasonic Mobile Communications unveiled its new strategic mission last week. It sees the mobile phone of the future as a "magic wand" packed with features to serve the needs of the 21st century citizen. Siemens from Germany is making a similar move. China is one of the first marketplaces where it is testing its new collection of personal communications devices with radically different shapes and wearable designs.
Samsung Electronics, the No. 3 mobile phone maker in the world, wants to push the technological edge by stressing multimedia functions. In its latest concept mobile phone line, the Korean manufacturer is working on cell phones capable of making two-way video calls, storing video clips and supporting video-on-demand service.
Last, but not least, Taiwanese manufacturers search for new features based on multilingual functions.
As handset supply is projected to outpace demand in China, the mobile industry has clearly embarked on a new era of consumerism.
Either it's a voice-centric fashionable handset or a feature-rich "magic wand." Whichever emerges as the winner would help us better understand the wide spectrum of high-tech consumer behaviors. As such, what works for China may work for the rest of the world.
Tung X. Bui is the Matson Navigation Co. chairman of global business at the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Business Administration. He can be reached via the Web site: ec.cba.hawaii.edu
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