China’s mobile phone sales will be lower than expected after the May earthquake and a lack of state of the art applications depressed sales in the second quarter, a Beijing-based research firm said recently.
CCID Consulting, a research group with the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry, cut its 2008 domestic handset sales forecast to 165 million units from 185 million units.
“The handset market lacks innovations and the 3G market has only just started so many consumers have adopted a wait-and-see attitude,” said Li Xuefang, a CCID analyst.
Popular new functions include electronic wallets which allow users to pay utility bills, Pushmail which connects directly with e-mail, GPS and NFC (near-field communication) which can be used for ticketing and payments, the CCID said.
“These functions require advanced chips and smartphone operating systems. An extra like mobile TV is just for a niche market,” said Sandy Shen, a Shanghai-based analyst at Gartner Inc.
China has issued details of the anticipated reorganization of the telecommunications industry which will involve 3G licenses, probably next year.
High-speed mobile services, which can include film downloads and videoconferencing, should encourage more users to replace their phones. Firms such as Nokia, Motorola and Dopod have developed 3G phones and are just waiting for regulator approval.
In the first half of the year, 96.40 million handsets were sold, a 17.52-percent growth year on year. But second quarter sales lagged behind the first quarter because of the earthquake, CCID said.
