HDTV LCD TV

The competition of mobile phone manufacturers is heating up in China. The gross profit of white box wholesale mobile phones supplier is declined from 90 dollars per unit in 2004 to less than 1.5 dollars now. Meanwhile, more China companies and international companies join in the market. For example, Lenovo currently launches its own smartphone, RIM has declared to build cooperative relationship with China Telecom, China Unicom plans to introduce iPhone4 and now HTC declares that it will enter the China smartphone market with four models.

Part of the phone manufacturers concentrate on the massive production while others focus on shaping the high profit market. The manufacturer should build nice partnership to perform their strategic tasks. You may choose one or more following development routes.

Meet the needs of operators
In this case, the operator controls the user’s interface and preassembles its value added service. In return, the phone manufacturer will gain the commitment of minimum purchasing amount and can fully make use of the operator’s commercial network. All the China operators have used the strategic partnership for 3G mobile phone. Lenovo has launched LePhone with Chinaunicom. It’s developed to be targeted at iPhone market. And the application program is preassembled.

The mobile phone – consumer electronics
The manufacturers have a partnership with the application supplier. Some devices like music phones SonyEriccson and TV mobile phones with certain features will be appraised on the market. In some cases, the phone manufacturers will cooperate with vertical portal sites. The strategy will create the difference and selling point.

Mobile phone is the application program platform
The mobile manufacturer acts as a promoter and builds an open platform for the third developer. Apple, RIM and Nokia all apply the developing route. However, because there’s interest conflict with Telecom Company, it’s filled with risk. All the operators of China mainland push out the own application program store to compete with the manufacturers’ store.

China Mobile concludes the cooperation agreement with Nokia and launches its store-MM-Ovi. But it’s result in the high subsidy expense caused by the fierce competition. The China operator is unwilling to be the transmitting channel, but the manufacturers control the user’s interface strongly. Actually, that’s why the China three large operators have a hard negotiation with apple.

The operators are pressed
In the 3G times, all the operators know the importance of mobile phone and launch great mobile phone subsidy strategy. Operator can cooperate with the less competitive brand through the first route. On the contrary, the mobile manufacturers must avoid being too dependent on the subsidy of operators. They should develop their core competence and move towards the second and third route.

The company who can control the user interface can earn the greatest profit. The manufacturers are in the position of long term competence. The dealers must make good use of the subsidy strategy and make time for developing their own product. It’s not a possible case in the small market. But the large-scale China customers are the exclusive asset of few operators.