【英语中国】中国本土手机崛起 天宇一马当先

Chinese handset makers are gaining market share on their home turf, the world's largest mobile market, using agility and their knowledge of Chinese users to challenge multinational heavyweights such as Nokia Corp.

Leading the pack is Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co., also known by the name of its handset brand, K-Touch. Tianyu has become the biggest local handset maker in China, where its relatively inexpensive smartphones -- some offered with quirky features such as ultraviolet lights, used for detecting counterfeit bills -- appeal to consumers.

The company had a 7.5% share of roughly 55 million handsets shipped in China in the first quarter, ranking third, after Nokia and Samsung Electronics Corp., compared with just 1.2% of the market in the first quarter of 2007, according to Analysys International.

Analysts say new handsets by Lenovo Group Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. also may challenge sales by multinational industry leaders.

'In the past, big foreign brands occupied 90% of the whole Chinese market, but Chinese companies now have about one-third,' says Wang Liusheng of Analysys. Tianyu, for example, 'reacts quickly. . .it's been more sensitive toward customers' likes and dislikes.'

Tianyu introduces new cellphones 'at a fast pace, which gives customers more choices,' says Xie Hongyi, a Beijing-based analyst with CCID Consulting. Though Tianyu doesn't have revolutionary designs, it 'always has some small function-oriented designs and features that respond to customer demands.'

To be sure, Nokia and Samsung still dominate the market by a wide margin, with shares of 33.2% and 24.9%, respectively. Analysts say market-share gains by newcomers are partially a result of the erosion of Motorola Inc.'s handset sales.

Motorola declined to comment. The company has released a number of phones that use Google Inc.'s Android operating system, in hopes that the devices will be hits among consumers in China and elsewhere.

A spokesman for Samsung said it has posted 'steady and firm growth in China.' The company's market share is up from just 9% in the first quarter of 2007, according to Analysys. Samsung said it has two research-and-development centers in China dedicated to telecommunications and mobile phones.

Nokia has about 100,000 retail points in China, said a spokeswoman. 'We welcome the competition,' she said.

It remains to be seen how Tianyu, which has benefited from the use of mostly second-generation low-cost handset chips by Taiwan chip designer MediaTek Inc., will compete in third-generation services, which enable high-speed data functions such as wireless video. China's three state-owned mobile operators, China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. are just beginning to gain 3G subscribers after a long regulatory delay. According to government statistics, China as of April had 786.5 million mobile subscribers, the most in the world.

Xu Kun, branding promotion manager of Tianyu, said the company has released 40 to 50 3G handsets so far, about half of which are compatible with China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network. Tianyu plans to release dozens more, including a handset running Android, set for July release, and cellphones featuring software that enables users to make purchases on the Chinese shopping website Taobao.com.

According to Ms. Xu, the company will continue to offer special features such as a dual SIM-card option, which is popular among Chinese 3G users because they can maintain their existing second-generation phone numbers and subscriber accounts with the option to add a 3G line.

Other features noted by users include built-in business-card scanners and the option to have text messages read aloud, all of which come with phones that cost less than $200. One Tianyu user says she purchased Tianyu's K-Touch E62 because it 'looked a lot like' the Magic, a touch-screen smartphone by Taiwan handset maker HTC Corp., but cost 798 yuan ($117). The HTC Magic, which uses Android, sells for as much as triple that price in Chinese cellphone markets.

Tianyu was founded by cellphone distributor Rong Xiuli, who started a handset contract-manufacturing business in 2002 before introducing the K-Touch brand in 2005. It isn't the first Chinese company to pose a challenge to multinational handset makers. Sales by Chinese handset makers such as Ningbo Bird Co. and TCL Corp. made up almost half of the local market earlier in the decade, primarily because they had better distribution networks than their foreign competitors.

The companies' success in China led to greater ambitions. In 2004, Bird announced plans to take on Nokia, Motorola and Samsung overseas and grab as much as 8% of the global handset market within three years, but this hubris didn't last. According to Flora Wu, analyst at technology consultancy BDA China Ltd., Nokia and the others began reaching out to smaller cities and rural areas. Bird and TCL began reporting sales declines before eventually dropping out of the list of top handset vendors.

In this way, Tianyu's market-share gains make the company seem 'phoenix-like,' says Duncan Clark, BDA's chairman. Tianyu, which also sells handsets in India and Indonesia, has considered an initial public offering of stock.

Meanwhile, analysts expect Huawei and ZTE to rise within China's handset market because they have invested in developing low-end smartphones, including 3G handsets. Dozens of other Chinese handset makers also using MediaTek chips are increasing their sales as well, though many are focused on emerging markets outside of China, such as Africa.

中国手机生产商通过其灵活多变的特点以及对中国用户的了解，向诺基亚(Nokia Corp.)这类跨国手机巨头发起挑战，在中国这个全球最大手机市场赢得了更多份额。

北京天宇朗通通信设备股份有限公司(Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co.)就是中国厂商中的佼佼者。这家公司还以其手机品牌天语(K-Touch)闻名。天宇已成为中国最大的本土手机厂商，其生产的价格相对低廉的智能手机对消费者有很大的吸引力。天宇的一些手机拥有诸如紫外线验钞机等稀奇古怪的功能。

据研究公司易观国际(Analysys International)的数据，今年一季度中国市场手机发货量大约550万台，天宇占了其中7.5%的份额，排在第三位，仅次于诺基亚和三星电子(Samsung Electronics Corp.)，而该公司2007年一季度市场份额仅1.2%。

分析师们说，由联想集团(Lenovo Group Ltd.)、华为技术有限公司(Huawei Technologies Co.)和中兴公司(ZTE Corp.)推出的新款手机也可能给跨国行业领军公司的销售带来挑战。

易观国际分析师王柳生（音）说，过去外国大品牌占据了90%的中国市场，但现在中国公司占了大约三分之一的份额。以天宇为例，它反应迅速……对消费者喜欢什么、不喜欢什么更为敏感。

赛迪顾问股份有限公司(赛迪顾问)(CCID Consulting Co.驻北京分析师谢宏奕（音）说，天宇推出新款手机的速度很快，让消费者有了更多选择。虽然天宇没有革命性的设计，但总有一些小的实用设计和功能，能够呼应消费者的需求。

当然，诺基亚和三星依然以很大优势主导市场，份额分别为33.2%和24.9%。分析师们说，后来者的市场份额增长部分是由于摩托罗拉(Motorola Inc.)的手机销量下挫。

摩托罗拉拒绝置评。该公司发布了数款使用谷歌(Google Inc.) Android操作系统的手机，寄希望于这些机型能够赢得中国和其他地方用户的青睐。

三星发言人说，该公司在中国取得了稳定扎实的进展。易观国际的数据显示，三星的市场份额从2007年一季度的仅9%不断上升。三星称在中国有两个专门从事电信和手机方面的研发中心。

诺基亚发言人说，诺基亚在中国有大约10万个零售点，她说公司欢迎竞争。

天宇得益于使用台湾芯片制造商联发科技股份有限公司(MediaTek Inc.)生产的低成本第二代手机芯片，它如何在3G手机方面展开竞争还有待观察。3G手机能够实现高速数据传输功能，比如无线观看视频。中国三家国有移动运营商中国移动(China Mobile Ltd.)、中国联通(China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.)和中国电信(China Telecom Corp.)在由于监管原因而拖延了很久之后，刚刚开始争取3G用户。据政府统计，中国截至4月共有7.865亿手机用户，数量为全球之冠。

天语品牌推广经理徐坤说，到目前为止，公司已经发布了40到50款3G手机，其中半数与中国移动TD-SCDMA网络兼容。天语打算再发布几十款手机，其中有一款采用Android操作系统，计划于7月份发布；一些手机的软件还能让用户在淘宝网上购物。

据徐坤介绍，公司将继续提供一些特别功能，比如双卡双待。这种功能在中国3G用户中很流行，因为他们可以保留原来的2G手机号码和账号，同时再加进一个3G线路。

用户在意的其他功能包括内置名片扫描仪和短信朗读，这些功能在售价不足200美元的手机中都有。一位天语用户说，她购买天语K-Touch E62是因为这款手机非常像台湾手机生产商宏达国际(HTC Corp.)生产的触屏式智能手机“Magic”，但价格只有798元（合117美元）。HTC Magic运行Android系统，在中国市场的售价相当于E62的三倍。

天语由手机经销商荣秀丽创办。她在2002年创建了一家手机代工企业，2005年推出“K-Touch”品牌。它并不是第一家对跨国手机制造商发起挑战的中国企业。本世纪前些年，波导(Ningbo Bird Co.)和TCL集团等中国手机生产商的销量差不多占本土市场的一半，这主要是因为它们比外国竞争对手拥有更好的分销网络。

在中国取得成功后，这些公司有了更大的野心。2004年，波导宣布计划同诺基亚、摩托罗拉和三星在海外市场较量，三年内取得最高8%的全球手机市场份额。但这种自负没有维持下去。据科技咨询公司BDA China Ltd.分析师吴芙蓉(Flora Wu)说，诺基亚等公司开始把触角伸向中小城市和农村地区，波导和TCL开始报告销量下滑，最终在销量上被挤出了前列。

BDA董事长邓肯(Duncan Clark)说，如此来看，天语市场份额的增长让这家公司有如不死鸟重生。天语也在印度和印度尼西亚销售手机，并已开始考虑上市。

与此同时，分析界预计华为和中兴将在中国手机市场崛起，因为它们在低端智能手机的研发方面进行了投入，其中包括3G手机。中国其他数十家也采用联发科技芯片的手机生产商，销量同样也在增加，但很多厂商专注于中国以外的新兴市场，比如非洲。