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36 Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2012
Of related interest . . .
✆ A new study by the London-based
media communications services
company WPP identified China
Mobile as the most valuable
Chinese brand, with an estimated
brand worth of over $53.6 billion.
The WPP report had China
Telecom and China Unicom in 11th
and 15th place, respectively. China
Telecom’s brands are worth an
estimated $10.86 billion; China
Unicom’s, $6.25 billion.
Nokia entertains vaulting
ambitions for its Lumia
800 smartphone
Nokia Corp, the world’s largest mobile
phone maker by volume, is tackling
technical hurdles in China ahead of
a launch there of its new Lumia 800
with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.
According to Dow Jones Newswire
(7th December), a Singapore-based
executive of the Finnish company
confirmed a working relationship with
Microsoft of the US to meet technical
standards in expectation of both a
China and a US launch in the first
half of 2012. There are also plans
for a Lumia rollout in Malaysia and
Indonesia before the end of the year.
Nokia’s ambitions for its Lumia
800 handset proceed from an
extraordinarily strong debut in the
Netherlands and France. KPN, the
largest Dutch mobile carrier, reported
that the 800 was its best-selling
phone as of 6th December.
This is especially remarkable in light of
the brisk sales continuously reported
for the new Apple iPhone 4S.
Anticipating high Lumia demand,
Nokia is expected to increase orders
to its suppliers by as much as 20 per
cent in 2012.
DigiTimes on 7 th December reported
that the Taiwanese keypad and
metal chassis maker Silitech saw
its consolidated revenues grow 6.8
per cent to $44.33 million in the
year through November, credited
by sources to orders for aluminium-
magnesium alloy chassis from Nokia.
✆ IntoMobile’s George Tinari
observed that Nokia and its
suppliers are not the only ones
expecting to benefit from the
Lumia 800. Constrained by its
hardware, Microsoft’s Windows
Phone operating system (OS) has
attracted relatively few users.
By increasing the “install base”
of the Windows Phone, Lumia is
heightening customer awareness.
Wrote Mr Tinari: “Mango added a
high level of polish to the OS, so
Microsoft definitely deserves the
attention.”
✆ There are remarkable similarities
between the Lumia 800 and
another of Nokia’s smartphones:
the N9, also unveiled late last year.
The salient difference between the
two devices lies in their operating
systems. As noted by nvonews.
com (January 5th), otherwise they
are “two machines with the same
dimensions [and] almost the
same weight, screen size, and
form factor.” The Northern Indian
news blog pointed out that, while
Lumia 800 is Nokia’s first phone
with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango,
the N9 may be one of the last
phones from Nokia with its own
MeeGo OS.
China Telecommunications Corp, the nation’s largest fixed-line phone
company, plans to expand into more European markets after inaugurating its
first overseas wireless service in the United Kingdom.
As reported by Bloomberg News, the managing director for China Telecom
Europe, Ou Yan, said that the service, aimed at Chinese residents, will begin
in the UK by the end of March and expand to Germany and France if it is
successful.
There are two million Chinese living in western Europe, according to
Liu Changhai, the China Telecom executive responsible for regional
development. The company’s initiative in the UK will target the more than
half-million Chinese citizens living there, as well as the tourists expected to
flock to the Olympic Games in London in June. (Itself London-based, China
Telecom Europe is a subsidiary of the state-owned parent company but is
not part of the publicly traded China Telecom Corporation.)
“Our target customers are the Chinese communities,” Mr Liu said in an
emailed response to questions from Bloomberg. “We are exploring a new
market.” (“China Telecom May Expand to France, Germany After UK,”
5th January).
Mr Liu said his company will become the first Chinese operator to start
a mobile virtual network outside China. The UK service is to run on the
network of Everything Everywhere, a joint venture of France Telecom SA and
Deutsche Telekom AG. China Telecom will lease the capacity from Everything
Everywhere.
Bloomberg’s Jonathan Browning and Edmond Lococo noted that intensifying
competition in China has led domestic companies including China United
Network Communications Group Co to cut international roaming fees by as
much as 90 per cent.
The reporters were told by Neil Juggins, a Hong Kong-based analyst at
JI Asia Research Ltd, that setting up a mobile virtual network will help
China Telecom, the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier, to compete on
international roaming rates with China United.
China Telecom’s wireless service ranks behind China Mobile Ltd and China
Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd in the world’s largest mobile market by users.
From data supplied by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,
China had 975 million mobile subscribers at the end of November 2011.
The nation is believed to have recently overtaken the US as the world’s
largest smartphone market.
A China Telecom plan to expand into western Europe
hinges on an initial success in the United Kingdom