Indian phone makers leave China to build at home

[F-16 Viper]

Hope u guys are not day dreaming... even if MAXX mobile and Intex will manufacture their smartphones in India.. in the starting, it would only be assembled... the parts would be imported from China... and to import these parts their cost would be just approximately the same as before... how ever u will setup a plant of Millions of US dollars, (keep the cost of this plant a side...)

 

[cirr]

Xiaomi，one of the smartphone minnows but also one of the fastest growings in China。

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi rakes in $2.15b revenue for H1 2013 with more than 7m phones sold

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has released a series of impressive statistics for the first half of the year, in which it sold more than 7 million smartphones and booked RMB13.27 billion ($2.15 billion) in revenue.

The figures, announced by CEO and founder Lei Jun at an internal staff meeting and released on Xiaomi’s Weibo account (spotted first by Tech in Asia), do not indicate profit, but they are remarkable considering that Xiaomi released its first device as recently as 2011.

The Chinese company’s revenue of RMB13.27 billion for the first six months of this year has already exceeded the amount it recorded for the whole of last year, which stood at RMB12.6 billion, Lei noted. The 7.03 million devices sold in the first six months this year is also just shy of the 7.19 million units that Xiaomi sold during the whole of 2012, according to figures from Sina Tech.

The figures also prove that Xiaomi is well on its way to achieving its target of selling 15 million devices this year, an aim that Lei had revealed about two months ago.

Xiaomi also recently made its first foray into the international space in April, launching its mobile phones in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The company’s latest figures show that Xiaomi has chalked up 14.22 million users of its handsets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Xiaomi has been garnering success in mainland China by inspiring the loyalty of many consumers, building a fan base that should help the company succeed. Its competitively priced phones are sold in batches that, when released in phases, regularly sell out fast, often within half an hour.

As of 12 noon today in China, 100 million sets of the Xiaomi Mi-2S 16GB version are being sold for RMB1,699 each as a promotional sale.

The startup raised a $216 million funding round last year and was valued at roughly $4 billion at the time. In April, it unveiled two new smartphones: the Xiaomi Mi-2S and the Xiaomi Mi-2A.5.

Chinese Smartphone Maker Xiaomi Rakes in $2.15B Revenue for H1 2013

 

[cirr]

7/09/2013

'Coolpad' Smartphones Overtake Apple And Huawei In China Market

The Chinese-produced smart-phone Coolpad is now the third-biggest player in China’s smartphone market, surpassing both international and domestic superstars such as Apple AAPL +0.64% and Huawei. A report in May by Sino Market Research attributed 10.2% of China’s smart-phone market to Coolpad in the first quarter of 2013, coming only behind Samsung and Lenovo. That beat Apple by nearly 4 percentage points, and Huawei by 0.2.

In a market where low cost proves the best weapon for capturing consumers, the producer of Coolpad cellphones, Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific Co., has invested heavily in R&D to develop inexpensive but sophisticated cellphones under Chief Executive Guo Deying. A 48-year-old technocrat with a master’s degree in engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Guo founded Shenzhen-based Yulong in 1993 and has built it into a business with $1.8 billion in annual revenue. In 2004, the holding company of Yulong, China Wireless Technologies, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The stock price of the company has doubled in the past year and has grown tenfold since the listing. Current market valuation of China Wireless at $716 million would give Guo’s family, which has a 39% ownership, wealth of at least $280 million.

Yulong has six R&D facilities worldwide. In 2007 the company received a national award from China’s State Council for its “double network” technology, which simultaneously connects cell-phones to both the CDMA and GSM networks. In the U.S., this would mean that you could keep an AT&T T +0.93% SIM card on a Verizon phone, and have two phone numbers at the same time (though this technology isn’t used in Coolpad phones sold in the U.S.). Some models of Coolpad phones also have settings for heightened privacy protection. As a result, Coolpad phones are favored by and are purchased as gifts for businessmen and government officials in China. A statement in the company’s annual report seems to confirm their client groups, in the order of importance—“Yulong Shenzhen mainly provides its Coolpad products for enterprises, government and mobile operators as well as individual consumers in the PRC”.

Starting from 2009, however, Yulong has become more aggressive in expanding its market to include lower-to-middle end customers. In just one year, in 2012, Yulong rolled out 48 different models of smart-phones, their prices ranging from less than $50 to $500. But nearly all of their shipments last year were lower-to-middle products, according to an analyst report by Macquarie Equities Research. Yulong’s strategy reflected the general shift of the Chinese smart phone market to the cheaper end: market share of smartphones at the $60-$110 price range soared from 0% to 27% in 2012.

Yulong’s ambition doesn’t just stop at China’s border. Last year, following the steps of its domestic competitors Huawei and ZTE , Yulong launched its first Coolpad LTE 4G smartphone in the U.S. through MetroPSC. About 900,000 of those devices have been sold so far, according to PCMag.com. With the recent acquisition of MetroPSC by T-Mobile, Yulong’s real venture in the American cellphone market has just begun.

Yet rapid expansion does not come free. Sales revenue grew proportionally with selling and distribution expense due to Yulong’s increased efforts in product promotion. The intensified fight over territory in the lower-end market also forces down profit – Despite being crowned as the “most profitable Chinese smart-phone maker” by Macquarie, Yulong’s net profit margin is merely 2.3%. To achieve more sustainable growth in the future, Yulong will have to cut down costs by streamlining their operations.

'Coolpad' Smartphones Overtake Apple And Huawei In China Market - Forbes

 

[cirr]

November 28, 2012

How Chinese brands got the smartphone bug

By Kathrin Hille in Beijing and Sarah Mishkin in Taipei

When HTC was overtaken in China by Gionee, it may have been a surprise to foreign observers. While Gionee did not register in smartphone sales statistics a year ago, it now has a
4.7 per cent market share, selling more than 1m phones in the third quarter this year.

But Gionee did not appear out of nowhere. The company, along with a dozen equally fast-growing domestic peers, is well-known in China.

Most of these groups come from Shenzhen or neighbouring towns in Guangdong, the province that is home to China’s main telecoms manufacturing hub, and originated as wholesalers or retailers of gadgets such as MP3 players or mobile phones.

When MediaTek, a Taiwanese chip designer, started offering handset chipsets at a lower price than global rivals and with an entire software pack that helps in the production of handsets, many of these small workshops entered handset manufacturing.

They have dominated the lower-end and rural market for years. Last year, when MediaTek began selling the smartphone chips, several of these second-tier brands launched smartphones of their own.

Gionee had been one of China’s pricier feature phonemakers, with “very, very high brand awareness”, particularly in smaller cities and rural areas, says Nicole Peng of market researcher Canalys.

Unlike many consumer companie groups which use pop stars to endorse their products, Gionee has tapped Larry Lang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a well-known economist, to front its commercials. “They give people . . . a very reliable kind of image and business feel,” said Ms Peng. “They have been in the market for a very long time, selling feature phones and building very good channels and infrastructure . . . developing relationships with local distributors.”

Another example is Oppo, which used to make MP3 players. It entered the handset business in 2008, selling its first smartphone only in August 2011. In the third quarter, it had a 2.2 per cent share of China’s smartphone market by unit sales, according to Gartner.

It plans to open 40,000 sales outlets, including 2,000 of its own shops, and ship 12m handsets in 2013.

For foreign brands, all this feels like déjà vu. “When the Chinese no-name [feature] phones started penetrating the market half a decade ago, powered by MediaTek, they pushed us off our number-one spot just like that,” says a former executive at Nokia, once China’s dominant handset brand.

How Chinese brands got the smartphone bug - FT.com

 

[cirr]

China’s Big 3 smartphone brands will make Indian rivals sweat

04 Jul, 2013 | by Nikhil Subramaniam

Mobile phones from China are a familiar sight on store shelves across India. The mobile phone boom, fuelled by Nokia and Sony Ericsson, also brought along hordes of China-made devices that were feature-rich, very reasonably priced, but were unfailingly bad buys due to the horrible build and component quality. That’s a complaint that still rings true, though not all Chinese phones have stayed that way.

A large amount of the low-cost Android smartphones these days are Chinese products. These are all generically produced and are given the branding of the company that sells them. This allows great price flexibility. Top Indian manufacturers as well as newer entrants to the market use this production model for their smartphone business. The success of Micromax and Karbonn is a direct result of this. While China’s strength in manufacturing has helped Indian manufacturers make headway in the smartphone market, it could also end up affecting them adversely. The manufacturing prowess has also resulted in the surge of Chinese brands across the world. And soon companies like Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE will be fighting Micromax and its ilk for the same inch in the market. And this fight could end up blunting the edge Indians have in their home market. Huawei and ZTE already have a huge standing in the telecom business and the former has been a fast climber in the global smartphone ranks, sitting in the third spot. ZTE is not far behind either.

These days, the likes of Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo grab the headlines when it comes to new devices. Through a combination of teases and leaks, Huawei’s Ascend P6 earned great hype even before it was launched. Huawei’s Ascend Mate is one of the largest smartphones in the world and despite the sheer size, it is one of the most exciting handsets in India right now, simply because it takes the idea of a phablet to crazier heights. Both the P6 and the Mate also come with a Huawei-designed UI that brings unique customisation options and a thorough power management solution. The company has invested Rs 175 crore to bulk up its marketing efforts in India and for brand building. This signals its clear intention for the Indian market.

Lenovo has been a quiet watcher on the sidelines in India. The company had a small presence in select regions, but only now is beginning to show the distribution and manufacturing prowess that has made it a top brand in China and, of course, one of the largest PC makers in the world. Having sold its mobile division in 2008, the company bought it back next year to refocus on that segment. Instead of taking things slow, it spent $793.5 million to build a facility that can produce 30 to 40 million phones annually. With such bold moves has Lenovo climbed to the No 2 spot in the Chinese market.

In India, the company entered the limelight with the K900, a stunning medley of stainless steel and polycarbonate unibody, a massive display and Intel’s 2GHz dual-core Atom Z2580 processor (see our review). It also has five other smartphones to choose from, giving potential buyers a varied feature set. Lenovo also has its pulse on the market. Four of its six smartphones in India are quad-core affairs.

ZTE recently appointed a new CEO for its India operations and is planning to launch more products in India to help increase smartphone revenues by 30 percent this year. This could see smartphones like the Grand Memo and the Grand S, along side ultra-affordable devices like the Firefox OS-running Open. The Grand Memo should especially appeal to users in India, who seem to have embraced phablets more warmly than other parts of the world. The Grand S joins the fast-burgeoning 1080p brigade with the 5-inch LCD. Both phones have a 13 megapixel shooter with 1080p video capture and high-end connectivity options for Wi-FI and cellular data.

Another brand that’s ready for an India foray, and one that you probably have never heard of, is Coolpad. Coolpad is one of the top five smartphone companies in China. Indian manufacturer Spice has now teamed up with the company to bring new phones under the Spice Coolpad brand. The first such phone, the Spice Coolpad MI-515, is already out in markets. This particular brand is expected to flourish with Android Nation stores, which are being launched in India by Spice and Google.

While these are still early days to proclaim the Indian market as an India vs China battleground, the stage certainly looks set. The litmus test will come when Chinese brands have to answer for the same things that Indian companies do; things like customer service, software updates and device reliability. Secondly, the new players can also compete on the basis of price, since they have the same large-scaled manufacturing advantage as the Indian companies, but they also bring unique design, hardware and software innovations. So they have a definite edge on paper.

One thing is certain: With the entry of big-name Chinese brands, the market in India has turned into a three-way battle of sorts, with Indian companies sandwiched between the new Chinese entrants and the established international players. Things are about to get hot here.

China

 

[cirr]

Friday, 28 June, 2013

Chinese university students develop 'pick a good watermelon' Smartphone app

By Amy Li

It's summer. And nothing is worse than hauling home some 20-pound watermelons - only to find that they are mealy and tasteless.

It has happened to me before. But it seems it’s time to end the misery - a new smartphone app named “pick a good watermelon”, developed by a group of Chinese university students, now tries to solve the ancient task of choosing a perfect watermelon, according to Chinese media reports.

The instructions are simple. Open the App and place your phone next to the melon. Now tap on the watermelon as you might have seen many people do.

Traditional wisdom says if you hear a hollow thumping sound, the melon will turn out ripe and crispy. A solid thumping sound, instead, means the melon is not ready.

But now let’s leave all that work to the smart device.

The App, now working as your ear and brain, will pick up the sound, analyse it, and decide if the watermelon is ripe enough.

A screenshot of the app.

With no watermelon immediately available, I tested the app on Friday morning by tapping on my desk, pretending it's a watermelon. In a split second, the app instantly delivered the result “not ripe.”

The developers of the app are undergraduate students from Northeast Agricultural University in Heilongjiang province, according to Chinese media reports.

The app, which currently only has a Chinese version, can be downloaded at stores by searching the Chinese words "Ting Xi Gua".

Chinese university students develop 'pick a good watermelon' Smartphone app | South China Morning Post

 

[acid rain]

China is not going down any time soon. Their policy makers are a lot smarter than ours. We shoulf worry about how to throw out this corrupt sickuler government out and make sure next government doesn't make the same mistakes.

As far as china goes smart phones are not their major exports and companies wont just move out as they have billions invested in china and have access to skilled workers which India has yet to produce

Companies are moving out of China, its not a surprise because it was a conscious move by the CCP to increase the value chain and get out of low cost manufacturing to get a grip over their heated economy.

The global economy is not yet geared to accept any drastic changes and like the Indian mobile manufacturers would want to move out of China bcos it does not serve its purpose. Our advantage is once they have moved out they are at liberty to start sourcing parts from anywhere they want - even from Indian manufacturers - the parts industry wil l surely mature over the years bcos the readymade demand will be there. We have ample rare earth deposits and the knowhow and manpower also the finances are there for these industries to start operating.

 

[cirr]

China smartphones serve up some serious contenders

By Goh De No
The Brunei Times/Asia News Network
Sunday, Jul 14, 2013

I'm sure by now you and I are already sick of looking at Samsungs and iPhones.

It's no secret I always dislike the iPhone, but Samsung is getting on my nerves with its similar products in different sizes as well.

The HTC's, Sony's and LG's are a rarity these days for whatever reason.

Last month, I went to China for the first time since 2002, and I was interested to see what the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) had to offer.

The country being one of the biggest parts manufacturers in the world for mobile technology, I was optimistic China should have a healthy variety of handsets, and I wasn't wrong.

Vivo X Play

At around 2998 yuan ($625) the X Play immediately caught my attention because of two things: its 5.7-inch 1080p screen and the 3D user-interface which is a heavy skin over Android 4.2.

The X Play confirmed that China's mobile market is erupting, with almost every phone in full High Definition screens in different shapes and sizes to choose from.

The X Play has excellent specifications such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600-series 1.7 GHz quad-core processor; 2GB of RAM; Adreno 320 graphics; and either a 16GB or 32GB memory to go with it.

On the rear, you have a 13-megapixel camera from Sony, surrounded by a pair of speakers, while the front is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera.

I got the chance to play with the X Play for about 10 minutes. I was close to buying it, but I decided to play it safe as I was unsure that its 4G/LTE radio frequency would match the one in Brunei.

But as a GSM phone, it's definitely a beast.

The camera is top-quality and the display is beautiful with 500-nits and an extremely good viewing angle.

The battery is a generous 3,400mAh, which will be good enough to last on standby for two to three days.

All this is just 7.99mm thick. Coupled with an extremely thin bezel, the X Play has a one-hand usability function.

iOcean X7

iOcean has been a constant in the Chinese market with legacy phones and it is slowly moving into smartphones.

Its line of products has evolved, but prices still remain cheap. At 998 yuan ($208), the X7 is a 5-inch full HD, 1.2GHz quad-core processor mobile phone.

It comes with 1GB of RAM, 4.2.1 Jelly Bean Android, 12-megapixel rear camera and a 4GB internal memory with an external storage slot which is expandable up to 64GB.

Sadly, this phone is 3G only, but at $200, it is a little hard not to spend money on if you see it in person.

Physically, the phone is plastic with a rubbery-finish, making it easy to hold, and is fairly light at just 150 grammes.

Display-wise, it is not as good as the $625 X Play, but it is good enough bearing in mind the price. With a high-megapixel rear camera, the X7 takes extremely good picture in good light, but as most phone cameras, it becomes just average in low light.

Oppo Find 5

Oppo is currently the maker of the best looking smartphones coming out of China, hands down.

As the name suggests, it features a 5-inch phone with full HD display.

Internally it houses a Qualcomm 8064 processor, which is a quad-core 1.5GHz and has 16/32GB of memory.

This phone has caught my eye since late last year, but sadly, the mobile-landscape is changing so fast that 5-inches is already somewhat out-dated and is too small for my liking.

Again, the Find 5 uses a 13-megapixel Sony Exmor camera, which has a fast f/2.2 aperture lens, making the whole package pretty impressive.

But, the Find 5 costs $550 and has no 4G/LTE radio which will probably be a deal breaker at this day and age.

However, for that price you get an extremely well built handset, a user-interface that you will find no-where else, and basically, it is beautiful on the inside and out.

Huawei Ascend Mate

This 6.1-inch Chinese-made phone is also 2998 yuan, but when I saw that it only has a 1280x720 resolution screen, it immediately fell behind the Vivo X Play.

At the same price and just 0.4-inch larger, it's hard not to overlook a 720p screen.

Specs-wise it has a 1.5GHz quad core processor and 2GB of RAM, which confuses me because if everything internally is premium, why is the screen non-premium?

Especially when priced close to the premium smartphone territory, the Ascend will be a little hard to make your mind up on.

Unless you absolutely like a super large phone with a battery large enough to match (4,050mAh), perhaps other Chinese-made phones would make better choices instead.

Lenovo K900

Going down this list makes me really sad that we don't have this many phones to choose from in Brunei. At around $700, the Lenovo K900 is one of the best in the Chinese market.

With 5.5-inches, full HD and 401 pixels per inch, the K900 also has a Corning Gorilla Glass 2 screen to protect it.

Lenovo is best-known for its working laptops, for the office and rugged conditions, but did you know that its smartphone is one of the first to make use of an Intel processor (2GHz dual-core)?

The K900 definitely has a premium feel courtesy of a unibody steel alloy shell with polycarbonate. It also has a 13-megapixel camera, but one thing that is disappointing is Lenovo's Android skin which looks really tacky, as though it's trying too hard to look professional.

Again, there is no 4G radio, which I think may be because the Chinese market doesn't actually have LTE yet. But we must bear in mind that the K900 has been launched for quite a few months now, and its direct competitor, being the Galaxy Note 2, already has an LTE variant.

Conclusion

So if you're wondering where to buy some of these handsets, some of which are extremely affordable, you'll have to resort online. Or if you go to Hong Kong, be sure to stop by Shenzhen where most of the mobile manufacturers are located.

Personally, I've got my eye on the iOcean X7 as a back-up phone just because of its ridiculously cheap price.

China smartphones serve up some serious contenders

 

[cirr]

Baidu makes its own branded smartphones。And now this：

Chinese smartphone market booming as Baidu buys app stores for $1.9bn

16 July 2013

OSCAR WILLIAMS-GRUT

Two Chinese companies made big strides in the smartphone market today, underlining the growing strength of the country's mobile industry.

Baidu, China’s largest search engine, today announced it is paying $1.9bn (£1.25bn) for a major app store developer in the country as it seeks to tap into China’s growing mobile audience.

NASDAQ-listed Baidu, seen as China’s equivalent of Google, is taking over developer 91 Wireless from Hong Kong-listed firm NetDragon Websoft.

91 Wireless makes its own apps and operates two of the biggest app stores in China, 91 Assistant and HiMarket, which run on Google’s Android operating system.

Almost all of China’s smartphones use an open-source version of the Android operating system which doesn’t come with Google’s Play store and services, with Chinese firms filling the gap. An estimated 10 billion apps have been downloaded through 91 Wireless' two app stores.

A Baidu spokesman said: “Mobile app stores are an important entry point to the mobile internet and are thus of great strategic interest to Baidu.”

Meanwhile Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi today reported first half revenues of $2.15 billion (£1.4bn), a figure already surpassing its total 2012 revenue, and said it sold 7 million handsets in the first six months of the year.

Chief executive Lei Jun said the firm is well on the way to meeting its target of 15 million devices shipped this year. Xiaomi, which only released its first handset in 2011, is aiming to develops high-end Android handsets for the Chinese market.

Xiaomi's first half performance and Baidu's purchase underline the strength of China’s growing smartphone market. In February, market analyst Flurry said China overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest smartphone market, with an estimated 246 million ‘smart’ devices in China compared with 221 million in the U.S.

Network provider China Mobile is also the world’s biggest carrier in terms of mobile revenue and subscribers, with analyst GSMA Intelligence estimating annual revenue of $90.44bn. Across China there are an estimated 1.1 billion mobile phone subscriptions.

Chinese smartphone market booming as Baidu buys app stores for $1.9bn - Business News - Business - London Evening Standard

 

[cirr]

Americans are making good money advising deals in China。

MoFo, Fenwick on $1.8 Billion Chinese Chip Deal

By Jessica Seah

The Asian Lawyer

July 16, 2013

Morrison & Foerster and Fenwick & West have the lead roles in Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd.’s proposed $1.78 billion acquisition of Chinese mobile phone chip maker Spreadtrum Communications Inc.

Shanghai-based Spreadtrum has agreed to Tsinghua’s offer of $31 per share. Spreadtrum sells most of its chips in China and Korea, and manufactures for companies including Samsung Electronics and HTC Corp.

The buyer, which is being represented by Morrison & Foerster, is a technology and infrastructure subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings, a Chinese state-owned investment company associated with Tsinghua University.

Silicon Valley firm Fenwick & West is serving as legal advisor to Shanghai-based Spreadtrum, which is listed on Nasdaq. In May, Fenwick & West announced plans to open a Shanghai office with Eva Wang, a partner recruited from Covington & Burling.

Shearman & Sterling Hong Kong partner Paul Strecker is representing Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd., financial advisor to the board of directors of Spreadtrum.

Read more: MoFo, Fenwick on $1.8 Billion Chinese Chip Deal

 

[cirr]

Jul 17, 2013

Smartphones For All!

by CKGSB

Domestic smartphone brands are gaining popularity in China’s less-developed markets, forcing foreign brands to question their approach

Read more: Forbes India Magazine - Smartphones For All!

 

[cirr]

Last updated: July 10, 2013 11:41 am

Chinese chipmakers in ‘bloody’ price war

By Sarah Mishkin in Taipei

Chinese chipmakers are engaging in “bloody” competition that could accelerate production of cheap tablets, already one of the fastest-growing areas in the consumer electronics industry.

Designers of the chips used in many of the inexpensive Chinese-made tablets popular in emerging markets have in recent months slashed prices by around 50 per cent, according to analysts.

“The market is forcing all the supply chain to be very cost-sensitive,” says Joe Chen, vice-president of greater China for GlobalFoundries, an Abu Dhabi-owned chip manufacturer that recently agreed to start producing chips for Chinese designer Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics. In chips, he said, “it’s a very bloody market, meaning a pricing war”.

The tablet makers’ race to undercut competitors and reach a broader group of consumers has led the chip industry into a price war, said Mr Chen.

The steep fall in prices could boost the spread of the entry-level Android tablets, now popular in both emerging and developed markets, and could push foreign chipmakers to lower their prices to pursue this fast-growing and ever more important market as sales of high-end gadgets such as iPhones start to slow.

Almost all the customers of Fujian-based Rockchip and its peer Allwinner, headquartered in Guangdong, have been little-known Chinese tablet makers willing to compromise on performance and battery life to make electronics cheap enough for emerging markets such as China and India.

But as technology improves and sales of cheaper tablets grow, it is not just small companies that are buying from them to preserve margins threatened by the shift to the lower end of the mobile market.

HP recently chose Rockchip to supply the processor for its newly released Slate 7 tablet, now selling for $140.

In smartphones too, Chinese chipmaker Spreadtrum has gained significant market share by undercutting both Taiwan’s MediaTek, a leader in the low and mid-tier phone market, and Qualcomm of the US, the dominant chip designer for high-end phones.

Randy Abrams, an analyst with Credit Suisse, says improving engineering at the likes of Spreadtrum could become a concern for US and European chipmakers as it raises pressure on prices.

“Can they [foreign chip companies] continue to protect their high-end market in developed markets, when the technology is getting pretty good in the China market?” he says.

Groups such as Rockchip are trying to win over new and more demanding customers such as HP. So far, however, they have grown by offering chips that allow tablet manufacturers to use cost savings unheard of in chips sold to first-tier brands, according to YT Boon, a former engineer now working for Credit Suisse.

Some Chinese chips, for example, let manufacturers use second-hand memory salvaged from old PCs, rather than the memory designed specifically for mobile devices.

“That’s why they can sell an iPad mini copy for $50,” he said of the Chinese manufacturers that are the designers’ main customers.

The cost of chips from groups such as Allwinner are down by around more than half in the past few months, said Mr Boon, and their quad-core chips can now cost as little as $8. That is around a third what a comparable chip from a first-tier designer like Nvidia can cost, says Sravan Kundojjala, an analyst with Strategy Analytics.

Such pricing has helped these challenger groups grow quickly.

Led by Allwinner and Rockchips, Chinese designers had a 35 per cent share of the market for the key processor chips in non-iPad tablets last year. That rose to 37 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to Mr Kundojjala.

Their success in the low-end market has drawn the attention and ambitions of foreign companies. Taiwan’s MediaTek in May launched a new chip for tablets. That launch, analysts say, will steal significant share from the Chinese groups and could block them from moving beyond their traditional whitebox customer base.

It will also, however, accelerate the fall in tablet chip prices.

“These guys will undercut what MediaTek wants to sell at to hold on to some share,” said Mr Abrams. “We’ve seen how aggressive they’ve been on price.”

Chinese chipmakers in ‘bloody’ price war - FT.com

 

[acid rain]

@cirr why are you posting so many articles which are irrelevant to the topic and are off topic?.

 

[Brahmos_2]

Wet day dream for india. to beat china

even if they Maxx mobile is made in India, most of the components will still be manufactured in china..
The ecosystem is not only subsidy, we need component manufacturers from screw to lcd panel . go to chennai nokia and ask how many parts they still import from china or other countries...


finally Trade unions. Again come to chennai . .They prefer Indians to be beggers rather than a low cost lab)ours (they say rich exploit the poor workers.. instead of working for them you be beggers or daily wage labour in fields)....


Finally china contols 90 % of rare earth.. When tata wanted to start a mine for titatnium ( not rare earth they chased them away)... we dont have lithium ,mines, so no batteries and hence no electronic industry.

We can import the raw materials from China like the Japanese, to make the stuffs locally

 

[Brahmos_2]

"Indian" phone makers making phone with chinese microchips and software.

That doesn't matter..even the Chinese companies like lenovo imports processors from Intel..