Brief Report on China’s Cell Phone Industry, 2008

Brief Report on China’s Cell Phone Industry, 2008

600 million cell phones were made in China in 2007 which accounted for over 50% of the global production. And China’s cell phone industry will keep a continuous high growth rate, raising its share on the global cell phone market.

The domestic sales of cell phone made a breakthrough of 100 million in China in 2006, reaching a record high of 100 million. In 2007, the domestic sales of cell phone in china were 190 million, increased by 74% as compared with 2007. The impetus mainly came from the rapid growth of new mobile phone users and old customers’ upgrading demands. Of 190 million cell phones, 140 million were made through formal channels, while the rest were made through informal channels such as smuggling, counterfeiting and renovating.

Chart The domestic sales of China’s cell phone industry from 2003 to 2007.


As far as 2007, sales volume had reached about 23 billion USD, increased by 17% as compared with 2006. The drop of cell phones’ average price made the increment of sales volume lower than the increment of sales because mobile communication company vigorously promoted the sales of cell phones binding to their service which have lower price.

The export volume of China’s cell phones added up to a record high of 385 million in 2006, increased by 69.3% as compared with 2005. In 2007, this figure reached 483 million, increased by 125.45% as compared with 2006. As far as 2006, the export volume had reached 31.214 billion USD, increased by 52.47% as compared with 2005. This growth rate is very high. The export volume of 2007 was 35.6 billion dollars, increased by 114.01% as compared with 2006.

The latest 2-3 years’ development trend has showed that the mainland market is developing in two directions, one of which is the extremely low price cell phones in emerging rural market; the other is multimedia cell phones with diverse functions such as mobile television, mp3 and GPS.

China’s cell phone market is dominated by products with price under 2000 RMB Yuan (about 290 dollars). Products at this price have accounted for 60% of the whole cell phone market, competing with China’s local brands, informal cell phones and international brands.

Table of Contents
1 General situation of the industry
1.1 Domestic sales
1.2 Export

2 General descriptions of products and technologies

3 Competitions
3.1 Description of competitions
3.2 Brief introductions to major competitors

4 Analysis of development trends of China’s cell phone industry

Selected Charts
Chart domestic sales of China’s cell phone industry from 2003 to 2007
Chart domestic sales volume of China’s cell phone industry from 2003 to 2007
Chart export volume of China’s cell phone industry from 2003 to 2007
Chart market shares of China’s cell phone industry from 2006 to 2007