All electric car

The BYD Corporation — where BYD stands for Build Your Dream — has grown into the world’s second-largest battery producer in less than a decade of existence.

Now it plans to make a great leap forward.

Paul Lin, a marketing executive with the company, said, ‘We’d like to make a green energy car, a plug-in. We think we can do that.’

BYD has built a 148,000-square-meter auto assembly plant here and hired a team of Italian-trained car designers; it plans to build a green hybrid by the end of the year.

BYD was founded in 1995 by a scientist who studied metallurgy, the company has made lithium batteries, cell phones, camera equipment, auto parts and other components for Nokia, Motorola and Sony, among others, gaining experience in producing high-quality goods.

Paul Lin said, ‘The technology for a car is not that sophisticated. It’s big, but a lot of low technology.’
Source: New York Times

China TechFaith mobile

Cell phone designer China TechFaith Wireless Communication Technology has laid off nearly half its work force and appointed a new deputy Chief Executive Officer.

The moves are part of the Beijing-based company’s plan to focus more narrowly on higher-end mobile phones as it works to stave off competition.

At the end of the second quarter, China TechFaith said it employed 700 people, down from 1,300 at the end of the first quarter.

The company said it will take a charge of about $2 million in the current third quarter related to severance costs, but that it will save about $3 million in operating costs starting in the fourth quarter.

China TechFaith also announced executive-level changes as part of the restructuring.

Xiaonong Cai, a six-year veteran of the company, replaced Bob Huo as deputy CEO. Huo resigned to pursue personal interests, according to the company.

The cell phone company also named a new president, Shugang Li, replacing Gilbert Lee, who will remain on the board.
Source: CNN Mobile

Car navigation device

First understand that 4.5G TFT LCDs are used in 10.4in and smaller panels. These are made into 1.8in to 4in LCD screens which are built in mobile phones, MP3/MP4 players, digital cameras, PDAs and video game consoles; as well as 5in to 10.4in LCDs for car navigation devices, portable DVD players, digital photo frames, ultramobile PCs (UMPCs) and laptops. A large potential market.

There are 57 small- and medium-size panel production lines in the world, four of which are 5G production lines in mainland China.

Companies such as Beijing BOE Technology Group, Catic Shenzhen Co. and Shenzhen Tianma Microelectronics, have recently invested in new 4.5G production lines — the second, third and fourth of its kind in mainland China.

The number of 4.5G TFT LCD production lines in the region is expected to reach 8 or 10 in the next 5 years.

The production line’s low technology barriers and lesser investment capital requirement are said to be the main reason why some TFT LCD makers are paying more attention to 4.5G lines. And, in truth, the growth of the use of devices requiring these smaller screens is big enough to sustain much expansion.
Source: Computer Products

TD Digital TV mobile phone

China Mobile, an official Olympic sponsor, used the Games to tout a new network based on the government-backed TD-SCDMA standard.

The idea is that with TD-SCDMA China has its own standards and does not have to pay royalties to anyone else. Which is perhaps why it was not released properly, as promised, in time for the Olympic Games.

Three local employees of the Financial Times Beijing bureau won the chance to join a large-scale TD-SCDMA consumer service trial using locally produced handsets.

Unfortunately, after three days of intensive use, thierverdicts on the TD-SCDMA service were damning.

‘It’s too terrible’ said one who used a Panda TD988 made by Nanjing Panda, with a recommended retail price of RMB2,780.

‘It sucks,’ said another who had a Lenovo TD800 at RMB1,800).

‘Too awful,’ agreed another trying out a Postcom n268 made by Guang­zhou New Postcom Equipment at Rmb1,800.

It would be wrong to read too much into a single technology test involving only three people. But as a random sampling it will do. On this experience TD-SCDMA technology is not mature, not ready for release to the public.

Wang Yumin, of the government’s China Academy of Telecommunication Research, says that while TD-SCDMA trails years behind its rival standards, it is making progress. He estimates that by this month China Mobile has between 80,000 and 100,000 TD-SCDMA users, up from 52,000 in early July.
Read the full report HERE.
Source: Financial Times

George Chen of E-Ha

According to owner George Chen, E-Ha’s goal is simple. Take advantage of China’s wide use of cell phone text messaging to offer discounts and get diners into restaurants, particularly on slow nights. Start in Shanghai and hope that it can spread from there.

E-Ha lets users search online for Shanghai restaurants by cuisine, neighborhood, price and ratings.  The service concentrates on finding discounted meals.

On the mobile end, users can request restaurant recommendations by text message and then book a table from their cell phone.

Still the project faces considerable challenges.

For example, in preparation for the Olympics, the Chinese government cracked down on text messaging.

The order shut down E-Ha’s text messaging service, forcing the start-up to reapply for an operating license. By the time E-Ha was able to resume its service a few weeks later, it had lost momentum.

It also required users to reprogram their cell phones with a new number. Now it is trying again.
Source: SF Gate San Francisco Chronicle

Ctrip publicity brochures

Revenues and profits from China’s major online travel business rose strongly in the second quarter of the year.

Ctrip.com saw quarterly revenue rise by 30% to $55 million, compared to the same period one year earlier.

Net profits were up 34% over the same period, reaching $17 million.

The company’s positive results were driven by a surge in online sales of air tickets.

Ticketing revenues rose 44% to $25m.

China’s increasingly affluent population is using air travel more for business trips, vacations and family visits. In addition, China has recently phased out paper tickets in favour of e-tickets, allowing ticket sales to be transacted completely online.

Apart from air ticket sales, Ctrip’s other main revenue generator is its hotel bookings business, which increased 14% over the year to $29 million.
Source: VNU Net

Computer maker Lenovo spent serious money to become a sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, not only designing the Olympic torch but sponsoring athletes and supplying computers for the games’ data and media teams.

It cost serious money. Some may come back from like Olympic-themed USB flash drives that cost serious money.

Lenovo announced the Olympic torch design, also featured on a Lenovo laptop, in early 2008. The 4GB flash drive sells for the equivalent of around $142.

Other patterns from Lenovo feature the adorable cartoon mascots of the Beijing Olympics: Beibei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YingYing, and NiNi.

A medallion style is currently sold out on Lenovo’s Chinese site, while a $29 4GB stick, and a $58 256MB oval-shaped drive, are for sale, with inexplicable price differences. The last of Lenovo’s designs is a $58, 1GB oval flash-drive sporting the Olympic rings.

Apparently Lenovo also makes a set of titanium Olympic flash drives engraved with the Olympic mascots and sold in a mahogany box. The price would not be insignificant although it has not been announced.
Source: Crave

Lenovo and Spreadtrum  have made a joint presentation to China Mobile of  Lenovo Mobile’s TD900, the new digital mobile-TV equipped TD-SCDMA handset.

The TD900’s design is based on Spreadtrum’s TD-SCDMA platform and mobile-TV solution.

Two batches of mobile-TV equipped TD900 are now in use by Beijing Olympics volunteers and staff members.

What we do not have is reports, as it were, from the action front. Instead we have the usual PR stuff from the two companies.

Yan Lv, President and CEO of Lenovo Mobile said, ‘TD900 is designed to address the needs of the mainstream market and is developed independently and to bring us the latest digital mobile TV experience.’

Dr. Ping Wu, President and CEO of Spreadtrum, said, ‘We are pleased that Spreadtrum and Lenovo Mobile were able to jointly deliver the digital mobile-TV equipped TD-SCDMA handsets. Spreadtrum has pursued independent innovation and has supported China’s self-developed standards for many years.’

What we want to know is how it worked in real life conditions. Taken that as a given then is seems even more likely that the home-grown TD-SCDMA standard is going to make it in a serious way in China. And then possibly some of the other, smaller countries of the world.
Source: Trading Markets

Japan’s Elpida Memory and China’s Suzhou Venture Group have agreed to establish a joint venture company by the end of 2008 to produce DRAM chips in Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province, China.

The companies will build a 300mm wafer fabrication facility (fab) in Suzhou Industrial Park to meet growing DRAM demand in the Chinese market.

The joint venture, on a site area of 320,000 square meters, is expected to start operations in the first quarter of 2010.

Initial production plans call for 40,000 wafers per month, rising to 80,000.

Elpida’s 50nm DRAM process technology will be used at the beginning and migration to 40nm — faster, less space consuming and eventually less expensive —  will take place as soon as the process is ready. Elpida will purchase 100% of the products manufactured at the fab.

Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee will be responsible for fab construction and infrastructure installation. (The illustration is NOT of the industrial park, it is of old Suzhou but it shows the charms of the place.)
Source: Market Watch

China’s Ministry of Education is to set up 30 information technology training bases nationwide to meet the increasing demand for technicians.

Yu Guangming, deputy director of the ministry’s Education Management Information Center, said the move was aimed to train more IT specialists to meet the huge demand.

The bases, vocational schools, would feature programs aimed at helping would-be job seekers to better incorporate knowledge into practical skills.

The training bases, which will be jointly sponsored by the center and local institutions of higher learning, would also provide advanced courses for technicians provided they had passed an aptitude test by the school, he noted.

According to an earlier survey conducted by Manpower Inc., a global employment service, technicians topped the list of most in-demand jobs in the Chinese labor market in the first half of 2008.
Source: China View