Device Arena

More than half of all mobile phones sold worldwide in the second quarter of 2007 were made in China, according to new research.

Shipments from the world’s most populous nation are up more than 20 percent on last year, say researchers from Taiwan-based Market Intelligence Center (MIC).

China’s mobile phone industry is driven by the country’s vast electronics manufacturing sector and huge home market for mobile phones, the analysts claim.

Shipments rose 23.1 percent year on year in the second quarter to exceed 132 million units, and are predicted to exceed 147 million units in the third quarter and approach 166 million units in the fourth quarter.

GSM phones dominate the local industry’s output as China’s government has still not licensed any 3G networks.

“Owing to Nokia’s strong global shipment performance, and robust demand in China’s domestic market, the Chinese mobile phone industry’s GSM shipment volume reached 114.9 million units, ” said MIC industry analyst Wu Shan-Tung. “The shipment figure did not live up to expectations, however, due to sluggish shipments from Motorola and its production partner Compal Communications.“

As a result, GSM’s share of the Chinese mobile phone industry’s output fell to 87 percent in the second quarter, down from 91.5 percent one year earlier.

Cheaper CDMA phones for emerging markets also boosted demand from China’s low cost factories.

“Nokia continued to outsource more of its CDMA mobile phones, and Qualcomm launched the value-line QSC-series CDMA chipsets, which significantly increased the price competitiveness of CDMA mobile phones in emerging markets, such as India, the Middle East and Africa,” added Wu.

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For the third year in a row, Nokia and TeliaSonera, in association with Gallup, have conducted a survey to investigate the use of mobile e-mail and interest in the service. The survey indicated that 37 percent of business users in the Nordic region use mobile e-mail when they are away from the office. More time for family and friends, and better customer service, were stated to be important advantages. Nine out of ten said, for example, that mobile e-mail allows them to provide faster and better service to customers.

This year’s survey also focused more closely on the managing director (MD) category. As many as 44 percent of the male business executives in the survey responded that they are already using mobile e-mail today for communications when they are away from the office (34 percent of female MDs). A lot indicates that usage by female MDs will soon be more widespread – this is because 60 percent who do not use mobile e-mail today believe they will start using the service within a year. Six out of ten business executives stated that more time for family and friends was one of the most important advantages of mobile e-mail.

“From the survey we can clearly see that mobile e-post has made its breakthrough on a broad front. The fact that almost four out of ten respondents are already using mobile e-mail today, when they are away from the office, is an impressive figure. It is also interesting to note that as many as 46 percent of the women managing directors in the survey use mobile e-mail today to check their messages on their phone several times a day. That tells us a lot about the importance of the service,” says Heidi Lax, Enterprise Solutions Director for the Nordic region at Nokia.

Nokia and TeliaSonera have both worked actively for many years to make it as easy as possible for customers to start using mobile e-mail. Over the past few years, the two companies have also seen a dramatic increase in the number of users. When Nokia and TeliaSonera surveyed business users in Norway, Sweden and Denmark two years ago, 14 percent of the respondents stated that they used mobile e-mail. Today, only two years later, the corresponding figure for the Nordic region is 37 percent.

“This is incredibly strong growth and we are seeing how more and more people are discovering the potential of mobile e-mail. We are also seeing that many mobile e-mail users believe they can work in a more flexible manner and have more time over for family and friends, which is a pleasing trend to see,” says Indra ?sander, head of Mobile Content Services at TeliaSonera.

Good manners important for mobile mailers
Despite the strong interest in mobile e-mail, and the fact that so many people send and receive e-mail on their mobile phones today, it is obvious that there are many occasions when it is not considered acceptable to use the service. For example, 74 percent of the survey respondents said it is not acceptable to use mobile e-mail when you are playing with your children. On the other hand, three out of ten in the survey said that it is alright to use mobile e-mail when they are in a meeting with their boss.

Mobile TV is still in its infancy in China and the technology needs to overcome four hurdles to attain steady growth, namely, the creation of a national standard, creation of a solid profit model, overcome low-quality user experience and bottlenecks in receiving devices, according to China-based research firm CCID Consulting.

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The Kelsey Group, the leading provider of strategic research and analysis, data and competitive metrics on Yellow Pages, electronic directories and local media, forecasts U.S. mobile search advertising revenues to grow from $33.2 million in 2007 to $1.4 billion in 2012, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 112 percent.

“Advertisers in the U.S. are the most aggressive in terms of messaging to potential U.S. consumers,” said Matt Booth, senior vice president and program director, Interactive Local Media, The Kelsey Group. “Given the relatively high spend levels, we believe advertisers will continue to look into innovative solutions, including mobile, that demonstrate a clear ROI on ad spend.”

The Kelsey Group’s mobile search advertising forecast, which is available to the firm’s continuous advisory services clients, comprises three distinct revenue and usage segments: