Lenovo will begin to sell LePhone at a “special price” and launch other types of new smartphone to rival Apple iPhone for a market with 6 million new users this year, said local web sites and consultancy on Friday (May 7, 2010).
"In the mobile phone and smartphone market, Lenovo can not just use LePhone to rival Apple iPhone. They should develop more types of smartphone to rival iPhone. But I think Lenovo’s advantage of traditional sales channels could help the company and LePhone have a good start,” said Wang Yang, market director of the iSuppli China, as quoted by the Guangzhou-based 163.com on May 7.
Lenovo Sets Special Price for LePhone and Prepares 3 Billion Yuan for Mobile Internet Market
Lenovo, the world’s No. 4 PC brand, launched a new mobile phone strategy and LePhone on April 19. Yang Yuanqing, Chief Executive of Lenovo, said that the company would set a “special price” for LePhone when it come to the market in middle May as quoted by the 163.com report.
Yang did not provide further details of the “special price.” But experts said that Lenovo may set a low price for Lenovo to kick off its new drive into wireless computing. Liu Chuanzhi, president of Lenovo, said on April 19 that mobile Internet products would account for 10-20 percent of revenue in five years, and Lenovo would not expect to make money from mobile Internet products in the next two years. Currently Lenovo has 3 billion yuan ($450 million) of cashes, which can help the company support the spending on the smartphone market.
Lenovo Rivals Apple iPhone for Booming WCDMA 3G Market with 6 Million New Users
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China’s 3G users reached 16.06 million by the first quarter of 2010. China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA 3G users totaled 6.86 million by the end of this March, increasing 790,000 users from 2009. China Telecom’s CDMA2000 users reached 5.14 million, increasing 320,000 from 2009. China Unicom, now the nation's third-biggest wireless carrier and Apple’s partner of iPhone business in China, had 4.06 million WCDMA users, increasing 460,000 from 2009.
Among the 4.06 million China Unicom 3G users, around 0.6 million are iPhone users. Besides, it is estimated that more than 2 million smuggled iPhone have been sold in the Mainland China by March this year. The total number of iPhone users reached 2.6 million by the first quarter of 2010.
MIIT forecasted that total number China’s 3G users would reach 30 million by the end of this year. China Unicom’s target is 10 million users, increasing 6 million from the end of first quarter. The 6 million new users are Apple iPhone's new opportunities. Lenovo aims to grab as many customers as possible from these potential iPhone users by their new-born smartphone.
Chen Nanyang - Chen Nanyang's journalist career began in 2002 when he started writing for China's Nanfang City News, Singapore's United Morning Post and ...
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