[科技前沿]中国移动拟推出100余款3G手机

China Mobile plans 100 3G launches

China Mobile, the world's biggest wireless operator by subscribers, wants to introduce more than a hundred new phone models in China by the end of the year to entice more of its users to switch to third-generation services, its chairman Wang Jianzhou said.

Mr Wang said China Mobile, which has a user base of 493m, “still has a lot of room to develop” value-added services, such as music and games downloads, but is stymied by a lack of advanced devices that support China's home-grown TD-SCDMA standard for 3G services.

“There are some [TD-SCDMA handsets] currently but the volume is limited. What we need is millions and tens of millions [of handsets],” Mr Wang said.

While still the biggest of China's three telecommunications operators, China Mobile's grip on its market has slowly slipped since Beijing restructured the sector last year. China Mobile, which in December was still signing up nine of every 10 new subscribers in China, said last week its share of new subscribers dropped to 60 per cent.

This was partly because China Mobile was given a licence to operate a network using the untested TD-SCDMA technology while its two smaller rivals, China Telecom and China Unicom, were granted licences for more established international 3G standards. Mr Wang denied criticisms that technical problems with the network were hampering growth.

While there are more than 7,000 phone models that support GSM, the most popular mobile phone standard, as of June there were only 50 TD-SCDMA handset models, Mr Wang said. He hopes that number will rise to 200 models by the end of the year, and is turning to Taiwanese manufacturers to fill that gap.

China Mobile will work with Taiwan's HTC to develop smartphones and will fund part of the research and development costs, Mr Wang said. HTC is the world's biggest maker of phones using Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform.

HTC is expected to release a customised version of the Magic, a smartphone running on Google's Android platform, in China this year. Mr Wang said China Mobile planned to launch five more HTC models next year.

Mr Wang also said he “has great expectations of MediaTek”, Taiwan's chip design company, the biggest supplier of mobile phone chips to China. MediaTek plans to launch its first chips for smartphones soon.

China Mobile also announced that it would launch smartphones made by Dell, the world's number two computer maker, and Lenovo, China's biggest PC maker. Mr Wang said China Mobile was keen to launch more netbooks and electronic readers.

中国移动(China Mobile)董事长王建宙表示，希望到今年底在中国推出逾100款新手机，以吸引更多的用户转向3G服务。按用户数量衡量，中国移动是全球最大的无线运营商。

王建宙表示，“仍有发展增值服务的大量空间”，比如音乐和游戏下载，但受阻于缺乏支持中国本土3G标准TD-SCDMA的装置。中国移动拥有4.93亿用户基础。

王建宙称：“目前有一些（TD-SCDMA手机），但数量有限。我们需要数百万乃至数千万（手机）。”

尽管仍然是中国3家电信运营商里最大的一家，但是自去年中国政府重组电信业以来，中国移动的市场份额逐渐下降。中国移动上周表示，中国移动占新增用户的比例下降至60%。而在去年12月，每10个新增用户中就有9个是中国移动的用户。

这在一定程度上归因于中国移动被授予未经考验的TD-SCDMA技术牌照，而两家规模较小的竞争对手中国电信(China Telecom)和中国联通(China Unicom)则被授予更为成熟的国际3G标准牌照。王建宙否认了TD-SCDMA网络的技术问题阻碍了增长的说法。

王建宙表示，目前支持最常见的GSM技术的手机有7000多款，但截至今年6月，TD-SCDMA手机只有50款。他希望到今年底这一数量上升至200款，并正寄望台湾制造商填补缺口。

王建宙表示，中国移动将与台湾的宏达(HTC)合作开发智能手机，并将承担部分研发成本。宏达是全球最大的使用微软(Microsoft) Windows Mobile平台的手机制造商。

人们预计宏达今年将在中国推出定制版的Magic——基于谷歌(Google)Android操作系统运行的智能手机。王建宙称，中国移动计划明年再推出5款HTC手机。

王建宙还表示，他“对台湾联发科技(MediaTek)寄予厚望”，这家芯片设计公司是中国大陆手机芯片最大的供应商。联发科技计划很快推出首款用于智能手机的芯片。

中国移动还宣布，将推出由全球第二大电脑制造商戴尔(Dell)和中国最大的电脑制造商联想(Lenovo)制造的智能手机。王建宙表示，中国移动非常希望推出更多的上网本和电子阅读器。