Foreign mobile phone makers such as Motorola and Nokia are winning back market share from China's fast growing domestic handset producers by promoting cheaper models, a consulting firm reported on Wednesday. Foreign rivals to the likes of China's TCL and Bluebird had moved into the low-end phone sector, where home-grown firms had recently come to dominate, said Analysis International, a Beijing-based IT company. In the first quarter, the market share for the Chinese firms dropped to 34 percent from about 40 percent in the three months to December, as overseas firms introduced lower-priced products.
A year ago China's domestic makers controlled 45 percent of the mobile phone market.
Previously, Motorola of the United States, Finland's Nokia and Samsung of South Korea focused on the high-end market and while their products were popular in major cities, they quickly lost out to China's inexpensive manufacturers.
Now they are clawing back market share after focusing on the low-end sector, the Shanghai Daily quoted Li Xuefang, an analyst at CCID Consulting Co Ltd, a government backed research firm as saying.
Motorola, the worlds number two handset maker, planned to launch more entry-level mobile phones in China costing as little as 40 dollars each, a quarter of current average handset prices in China, the report said.
The turning of the tables will force domestic companies to invest more on research and consider branding partnerships, according to Analysis.
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