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August 25, 2009

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China Mobile inks HTC deals

CHINA Mobile signed agreements with Taiwan-based HTC Corp, the world's No. 4 smartphone maker, to jointly develop 3G handsets based on home-grown technology, both sides said yesterday.

The deal is expected to help China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile carrier, increase its variety of 3G handsets based on home-grown TD-SCDMA (time division-synchronous code division multiple access) technology, analysts said.

China Mobile has provided a 47 million yuan (US$6.9 million) fund for HTC to develop TD-SCDMA products. The two firms will work together on product and technology development, according to HTC, whose brand on the Chinese mainland is Dopod.

"Together, we look forward to expanding the TD-SCDMA industry chain and spurring development of the cross-strait telecommunications sector. We look for this partnership to become a model of cooperation," Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile's chairman, said in a statement.

HTC is developing a TD-SCDMA smartphone called Qilin and plans to develop about seven new models for China Mobile by next year.

The Qilin model will become one of China Mobile's flagship 3G models, according to HTC Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou.

Global smartphone sales were strong during the second quarter this year at 40.9 million units, in line with United States-based Gartner's forecast of 27 percent growth year on year. This compared with a 6.1 percent decline in global mobile phone sales, according to Gartner Inc, an IT consulting firm.

"Given the higher margins, smartphones offer the biggest opportunity for manufacturers," said Carolina Milanesi, Gartner's analyst.

HTC ranked No. 4 in the global smartphone market following Nokia, Research in Motion (the maker of BlackBerry) and Apple (maker of iPhone), according to Gartner.

HTC's Qilin has a Windows Mobile operating system and will debut on the mainland in the fourth quarter.

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