China market: Qualcomm deepens penetration in entry-level smartphone segment

China market: Qualcomm deepens penetration in entry-level smartphone segment

Owing to concerns of hardware specifications, support of operating systems, product diversification and global marketing, more and more

handset makers have strengthened their cooperation with Qualcomm, especially after the availability of QRD (Qualcomm reference design),

industry sources indicated.

Over 80 China-based handset makers have employed Qualcomm’s solutions, and more than 30 Android smartphones have been rolled out

utilizing QRD solutions, the sources revealed.

In December 2011, China Unicom launched eight models of 4-inch, 1GHz smartphones, of which five run on Qualcomm’s processors, said the

sources, noting that other makers including ZTE, Huawei Device, Hisense and Coolpad are also using CPUs from Qualcomm.

The fast adoption of Qualcomm 1GHz CPUs in the production of low-priced smartphones by China-based handset vendors is likely to make

1GHz CPUs a standard for all entry-level smartphones in 2012, the sources commented.

While leading in the CDMA and WCDMA chipset segments in China, Qualcomm still lags MediaTek, Spreadtrum Communications and T3G in the

TD-SCDMA sector, the sources noted.

To address its weakness, Qualcomm plans to launch TD-LTE chips that will be downward compatible with TD-SCDMA and GSM technologies in

2012, the sources indicated.
★★★★★★5 Predictions For The Chinese Mobile Market For 2012

The number of mobile phone users in China exceeded 940 million in September 2011, and more than half of new users chose 3G devices. All

signs point to China as the next big mobile frontier, and mobile gaming will be a key component in this growth and bring in the lion’s

share of revenue for the region.

This isn’t just a Chinese story. It is on the mind of every major mobile app developer from Brooklyn to Bangalore. I am seeing it first

hand with our game network: The9 Mobile experienced a 500 percent spike in new games in just the past two months, with half of our 635

game titles coming from Western developers. Over the same two-month period, the number of The9 Game Zone players has more than doubled.

The mobile games community is more than doubling every two months. Every two months. Yes, that’s a record pace. In light of historic

growth cycle, here are some predictions to keep in mind for 2012:

•The number of smartphones in China will surpass 100 million.

As of now, there are around 50 million iOS, Android and Windows smartphones in the country. While China Unicom provides iPhones, China

Mobile supports around 10 million iPhone users even without a contract with Apple. Feature phones have dominated in China because of

their low price point and the appeal of prepay phones, according to a recent VisionMobile study. And now carriers are starting to offer

prepaid smartphones as well. The drive for smartphones is alive and well in China and will continue to grow. This leads into my next

prediction…

•All three telecom carriers in China will support iOS.

We can see the obvious demand in the number of Chinese mobile users who have sought out non-contract iPhones. I expect that in 2012,

China Mobile and China Telecom will join China Unicom in signing official deals with Apple to make iPhones more widely available. In

turn, this will boost sales for iOS apps in China.

•The Chinese game distribution market will continue to splinter and grow to over 100 unique channels.

Unlike the centralized Apple and Android app stores in the U.S., China’s marketplace is highly fragmented, with games being distributed

by carriers, devices and third-party channels.The9 currently works with 43 channels, but this is just the beginning of a long-term era

of app distribution in China.

•Android devices will become the smartphones of choice in China.

Gartner reported that Android took over more than half of the global smartphone market for this first time in Q3 2011 – a number

boosted by higher smartphone sales in China and Russia than in the rest of the world. While there are no firm numbers on Android

smartphones in China, third-party Android app stores continue to crop up and manufacturers are building more local versions of Android

devices that specifically target Chinese consumers. The iOS alternative is both gaining popularity and becoming more readily available

•In-game purchases will become one of the main forms of revenue for mobile games.

In China, 95 percent of PC online games already revolve around micro-transactions. I expect that a lot of this money will transfer over

to in-game mobile purchases as the number of smartphones in China increases. This is great news for app developers as free-to-play

finally makes its mark in mobile.

While there may be debate over when China will become the largest superpower in the world, there’s no doubt that its superpower status

in mobile gaming will be confirmed by the end of 2012.