October 29, 2003
Chip-Card Switches in China Skew Cellphone-Industry Data
Interesting, from the WSJ on how the size of the Chinese cell phone market, based on the government's study of sales of chip cards, is probably not as large as reported, as mobile users own several chips for the same phone.
Even with the lower figure, China still is the world's largest cellphone market. But this is really good news for makers of mobile phones as the potential for new phone sales is greater than previously expected.
Excerpts from the WSJ
"As his train pulled into Shanghai two years ago, UBS AG technology analyst Sean Debow caught an interesting sight: Passengers were switching the tiny chip cards in their mobile phones to access local services and save on roaming charges.
Mr. Debow knew that this practice could skew the Chinese government's widely cited research on its mobile-phone industry, which uses sales of chip cards to determine market size. On Tuesday, UBS told investors that several months of research into the Chinese mobile market had produced a startling discovery: It is only two-thirds the size most people think it is.
Instead of 257 million mobile users, a figure that UBS, the government and others previously cited in 2003 estimates, UBS thinks 174 million is more accurate."
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2003/10/002129.htm