Nokia stirs CDMA market
5/11/2003 15:12
Swedish mobile phone giant Nokia, Oyj's first CDMA phone in China, will
hit the market this Friday at a record low price, a move set to fan the flames
of the already heated competition in the phone industry, today's Youth Daily
reported.
The first batch of 5,000 phones will be marketed at Guomei
Electronics Appliances, one of the leading home appliance retailers nationwide,
at 388 yuan (US$47), more than 40 percent off Nokia's key rival Motorola's
record low offer of 699 yuan.
Market analysts said Guomei could probably
invest 600 yuan for each phone to avail the cheapest-ever CDMA phone and
expected the offer to soon spark a new round of price competition in China's
Code Division Multiple Access sector, previously a high-end sector of the mobile
telecom market.
Key CDMA phone makers from home and abroad are totally
unprepared by Nokia's upcoming offer. Motorola expressed skepticism about the
price while Sony Ericsson, Hisense and TCL were "shocked" at the news. They said
such a low offer could rarely make a balance for the phone's
manufacturer.
According to industry sources, overseas brands are dominating
China's CDMA phone market, with US Motorola, South Korea's Samsung and LG taking
a combined 68 percent shares.
Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
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