Scale, Innovation, Internationalization, Segmentation and Integration are the Hottest Topics at China’s Largest Mobile Event
TIANJIN, China, May 23 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- As the China's premier mobile phone industry event, the International Mobile-phone Industry Exposition (IMIE), held on May 18-20, 2007, has achieved another successful year in Tianjin, China, with an increase in both the quantity and quality of exhibitors and visitors. This year’s IMIE 2007 reveals that “Scale, Innovation, Internationalization, Segmentation, and Integration” are key trends of China's mobile industry trends. At the same time, the event provided an ideal platform for facilitating communication between the mobile terminal players and manufacturing players, covering every spectrum of the entire mobile phone industry chain.
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China has become the world's largest mobile phone manufacturing base and consumer market. In the first quarter of 2007, the total mobile phone shipment in China reached 134 million units, increasing 34.5% year over year. While the subscriber base of mobile services reached 480 million at the end of the first quarter of 2007, which increased approximately 20 million when compared to the statistic data at the end of last year.
Such an industrial scale, and its substantially increasing rate, indicates that China’s mobile industry will have a qualitative leap, which will impact the associated industries across the globe and result in rapid and continuous innovation and applications’ segmentation. It is crucial for realizing this growth that relevant enterprises have to seek more headroom for their further development by internationalizing and obtaining maximum efficiency with a more closely integrated industrial chain. This global-wide resource integration will therefore establish a rocky foundation for further developments for Chinese companies and oversea enterprises.
Scale
Large scale means greater opportunities and heated up competition. Global players are rushing to China to get a slice of this fast growing cake. IMIE 2007 became an important entry point for their penetration strategies. Supported by the Ministry of Information Industry of China, the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Municipal Government of Tianjin and organized by TEDA, the IMIE’2007 catered to keep pace with these trends. The IMIE’2007 hosted 320 exhibitors with 660 booths and 20,000m2 exhibiting area. The number of visitors is estimated to have risen 10% to more than 20,000, including 500 overseas visitors.
This year the IMIE held diversified seminars and forums, including China’s Mobile Phone Industry Development (International) Summit 2007, the 2nd International Mobile Entertainment Summit, the 5th China Cellphone Component Summit, and others. They have been featured with C-level speakers and key industry people from China Mobile, China Unicom, TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance (TDIA), Qualcomm, Vodafone, Huawei and more at both the keynote and breakout sessions, discussing and sharing the hottest trends in the mobile phone industry. More than 900 attendees have attended relevant sessions.
Innovation
The tough competition raised by the industry scale has been driving players find more opportunities from innovation. From mobile carriers to phone makers and component providers, the innovations of business model and technology are killing advantages in their competition strategies. With more emerging Asian EMS/ODM markets, the way out for Chinese suppliers has to be evolving from “Made in China” to “Made by China.” In this year's event, China’s TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance (TDIA) for the first time demonstrated their latest 3G applications, the newest TD-SCDMA terminal products and innovative applications.
In addition to mobile phone giants like Motorola and Samsung, world-leading chip makers such as Qualcomm, Freescale, Intel and Infineon, gathered in Tianjin for the first time, as well as Symbian, the world's biggest provider of operating systems for smart cellphones, who presented their novel solutions and systems. Meanwhile, some outstanding domestic chip companies such as Chongyou and Commit also presented or announced their latest chips and solutions. Maode (Chongqing), China's largest mobile storage manufacturer, also presented on a high note. The highlights in terms of innovation at this IMIE include the “triple modes in one” mobile phone of Global Online (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., batteries designed for 3G devices of Shandong Tongda Group, Bluetooth foldable keyboard of Beijing Chongyuan Technology Co., Ltd., et al.
Internationalization
With expanding the industrial scale and quickening the pace of innovation, the entire domestic mobile terminal industry needs to step into the world, seeking new markets, technologies, capital and other resources for more development space. To cater to these demands, the IMIE’2007 has invited overseas buyers from 24 countries and regions, including 7 overseas mobile operators and 17 multinational purchasing delegations. Their purchasing lists include HSDPA/GSM/CDMA mobile handsets, PDAs, Smart Phones and other mobile devices, as well as components and accessories.
IMIE 2007’s Global Purchasing Meeting and Business Matching offered great platforms to bridge suppliers and purchasers. More than 200 attendees from 18 overseas buyers and more than 40 Chinese suppliers attended the Global Purchasing Meeting at the IMIE, in which more than 50 contract negotiations have been initiated, expected US$500 million in total. Business Matching, a full service platform for suppliers and purchasers with the characteristics of “zero distance, low costs and high efficiency,” has attracted more than 500 attendees from 110 suppliers and leading global mobile phone manufacturers, including Motorola, Samsung, LG IPO, et al. These activities created infinite business opportunities and values for upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain.
Segmentation
The rapid expansion of China’s mobile communication market and industry scale demands to vertically segment the application market, which is one of key industrial developing trends and has become an important strategy for manufacturers in the industry chain seeking further development. The IMIE’2007 framed an efficient plan, which is to make China’s top mobile operators the leading roles and make value-added services and mobile applications the main segmentation sectors. Both China Mobile and China Unicom have presented various mobile applications aimed at diversified end users and industrial applications during the event. Meanwhile, many of China’s leading mobile games and value-added services providers have shown their latest technologies and services.
Keynote speakers from China Mobile, Nokia, SOCO SOFT, et al. have introduced wireless value-added applications and shared their insights about the mobile game and entertainment industry at the 2nd International Mobile Entertainment Summit & New Mobile Medium Seminar, cooperatively put on by China Mobile Communication Association (CMCA) and the International Data Group (IDG). This indicates that the IMIE’2007 has become a milestone for China’s mobile communication industry becoming more application-oriented and segmented.
Integration
This year the IMIE entered its fifth successful year. Based on its unique advantage in integrating the industry, the IMIE’2007 has pushed this integration up to its next stage by assisting domestic enterprises to be internationalized. Themed as “Creation, Integration and Development of the Mobile Phone Industry, Creating Infinite Business Opportunities,” and toned by the industrial development trends, this event has successfully built a perfect platform for upstream and downstream enterprises of the entire mobile phone ecosystem to develop and strengthen their symbiotic relationships.
As a grand industry event keeping pace with the entire industry, the IMIE’2007 has fully reflected the developing trends of China’s mobile communication industry. It has not only grown in size but also improved in content of the exhibitions and forums, as well as the quantity and quality of exhibitors and organizations. The IMIE is truly becoming China’s No.1 industry event for the mobile phone industry.
Brief Introduction to Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area
Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (abbreviated to TEDA, with “Taida” as its Chinese transliteration) was established in 1984, upon the approval of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. It was one of the first state-level economic and technological development zones in the country.
Located in the centre of the Circum-Bohai economic circle and in the east of the Eurasia continental bridge, TEDA is a portal to two such metropolises as Beijing and Tianjin and a vital passage to Northeast China. So far over 3,300 overseas-founded companies have settled in TEDA. Among them 93 are founded by 44 corporations of the Fortune Global 500 like Motorola, Samsung, Toyota Motor, etc. In 2000, TEDA was acclaimed by Fortune of U.S. as “the most admired industrial park of China.” In 2002, it was elected by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), along with five other Chinese cities and areas including Shenzhen, Suzhou, Pudong New Area of Shanghai, etc., “the most dynamic regions of China.”