Local firms elbowing in on smartphone market
In China's booming smartphone market,
which overtook the United States as the world's largest last year, a
host of domestic firms have innovation on the brain, especially as the
industry is on pace for even greater growth.
Within minutes of going on sale online, Xiaomi Technology sold 2.5
million units of its M12 smartphone, which has specifications that, some
say, exceed that of the iPhone and retails for less than half the price
on the Chinese mainland.
Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi Technology Co., forecast that the company's
sales would double this year. In 2012, the turnover of the company
founded less than three years ago amounted to 12 billion yuan (1.93
Chinese smartphone firms believe that long-term
efforts in innovation are required in developing home-grown operating
systems and are not concerned by the dominance of Android.
A report published by the China Academy of Telecommunication Research
warned that Chinese companies may face commercial discrimination
because the Android operation system -- what is deemed as a "core"
technology -- is strictly controlled by Google.
The report, released on March 1, urged China's smartphone makers to
develop self-innovated systems as the country lacks its own big name,
with Android's supremacy in 97.7 percent of domestic smartphones.
Android's dominance is the market's choice, and its popularity is worldwide.By the end of 2012 in China, Google's Android took up 86.4 percent in the market and Apple's iOS 8.6 percent. Home-made systems account for less than one percent, statistics suggested.
Many industry insiders, like Lei, have faith in China's mobile phone
market. Big names like Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo have elbowed their way in,
hoping to grab a piece of the market.
Statistics from IDC, an IT company and market researcher, show that
China's smartphone market could grow by as much as 44 percent this year,
with total smartphone shipments approaching 300 million units.
A total of 67.21 million smartphones were sold in China in the fourth
quarter of 2012, up 236.4 percent year on year, with domestic brands
contributing to 77.9 percent of total sales, according to statistics
from the China Academy of Telecommunication Research.
"Domestic makers made great strides in the smartphone market for
their abundant manufacturing experience and the cheap prices favored by
those using a smartphone for the first time," the report said.
Lenovo, a leading PC firm, emerged as the second-biggest smartphone
seller, with 13.2 percent of China's market share last year, following
the Republic of Korea's Samsung Electronics, which took a 17.7 percent.
Apple came in third, with 11 percent, and domestic companies Huawei
Technologies Co. and Coolpad rounded out the top five, with 9.9 and 9.7
percent of the market share, respectively.
Yang Yuanqing, chairman of the board of Lenovo Group, said the
company started developing smartphones and tablet PCs to compete with
Apple in both domestic and overseas markets.
The company's star product, the Lephone, is a low-cost smartphone
that industry insiders have hailed as a challenge to Apple's iPhone.
At the Mobile World Congress in January in Barcelona, there were
plenty of Chinese domestic devices on show, ranging from those costing
less than 1,650 yuan to high-end products valued at more than 3,000
yuan.
"We are providing products that cater to each level, from beginners to high-end consumers," Yang explained.
Lenovo's flagship product, the 3,299-yuan K800, boasts a 1.6 GHz
Intel processor and a 4.5-inch screen. But it is still based on Android,
an open-sourced, Linux-based operating system controlled by Google.
A report issued on March 1 by the China Academy of Telecommunication
Research warned that Chinese smartphone makers may face commercial
discrimination, as most domestic smartphones are over-dependent on the
Android system.
Lenovo's Yang said Sunday that creating an operating system is not as
difficult as providing an active platform on which people are
encouraged to develop software.
"Developing a system that only offers tedious software development is useless," Yang said.
Yang, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said, "I am saying
it is not impossible to develop a home-made operating system, as the
future market is promising with China's homemade brands expanding their
global influence."
Behind concerns about companies' over-reliance on the Android system,
among others, is a lack of innovation -- the soft spot that has become
apparent despite the country's neck-breaking development over the past
three decades.
But innovation is not restricted to an operating system, according to
Lei Jun, the Xiaomi CEO and a member of the CPPCC National Committee,
who says the ways his company develops and markets its products are also
innovative.
"Innovations we made included differentiated functionalities in
response to various consumers' needs. This sort of innovation is not
ground-breaking, but at least it is a breakthrough," said Lei.
Yu Wenqing, an industry insider with China Mobile Research Institute,
gives these companies credit for putting a twist on existing
technology.
"There were so called micro-innovations in those brands," Yu said,
adding that China has to move step by step, as fundamental changes
require great time and investment.
Chris Evdemon, a manager with Innovation Works, which invests in
seed-stage companies to encourage innovation, called the
"micro-innovations" a steppingstone for fundamental innovation.
These initiatives may inject fresh energy to the larger-scale,
enterprise-driven innovation that the government is expecting. China has
adopted a strategy of building itself up through the development of
science and education and boosting the country's core ability to sustain
innovation-driven development.
"Everyone has his own dream to pursue," Yang Yuanqing said.
Yang's dream includes seeing all Chinese people living well-off lives and enjoying dignity on the world stage.
"Also, Chinese enterprises will embrace worldwide recognition, not
only for scale or sales, but for their capacities for innovation," he
added. - Xinhua
No comments:
Post a Comment