The market for personal handy-phone system (PHS) phones in China has continued to dwindle, with the production of PHS handsets in the country declining 30% on year to 6.09 million units in the first half of this year, according to data released by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII).
In addition, the number of new PHS subscribers each month has declined to an average of 800,000 in the first half of this year, down from a monthly average of 1.68 million new subscribers in 2005 and 2.27 million in 2004, according to the MII.
Despite the contraction of the market, the two leading PHS handset vendors in China—US-based UTStarcom and Taiwan-based Inventec Appliances—are still exerting efforts to expand their market shares as they believe that a decline in the number of suppliers will help stabilize the market as well as their margin levels, according to market sources.
UTStarcom's new X30 handset, launched in April, has become one of the best-selling PHS phones in China, the sources indicated. The ultra-slim X30 is being manufactured using the AR1900 PHS single chip from Atheros Communications.
Meanwhile, Inventec aims to boost the share of its OKWAP PHS phones in the China PHS handset market to 20%, from the current 18%, according to company sources.
Article translated by Steve Shen and edited by Eric Mah
