Locals up share of expanding market
1 September 2002
China produced 38.92m mobile phone handsets in the first five months of this year, up 36 per cent on the previous year, while 38.96m handsets were sold in the period, an increase of 40 per cent, according to the Ministry of Information Industry. Subscriber numbers increased by 27 per cent over the five-month period, to reach 171.38m.
The ministry forecast that of the 95m handsets to be produced in China in 2002, 20 per cent would be made by the 12 major domestic manufacturers, and that 45m of China's total production would be exported.
China added 3.8m mobile phone users in July, according to Ministry of Information figures, bringing the total to 180 subscribers. This was below the 4.8m total of new users in June and 4.7m in May.
