Mobile One-Stop Shopping in China
3G TD-SCDMA network coverage is rolling out in China, and the country’s (and the world’s) largest operator, China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC), is opening a ‘Mobile Market’ application superstore for its products and services.
Details of these and other developments were discussed in a recent meeting between Lu Xiangdong, CMCC executive vice president; Hatim Tyabji, Bytemobile executive chairman; and other senior executives of both companies at CMCC headquarters in Beijing. Bytemobile and Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB) have been awarded Phase 1 of the CMCC Web Gateway project, which will enable open web browsing from mobile handsets on the operator’s TD-SCDMA network.
Mr. Lu indicated that TD-SCDMA coverage is now up to 230 cities, and 50 million subscribers are projected by 2011. CMCC will soon launch 36 different models of TD-SCDMA handsets into the market.
CMCC’s one-stop shopping outlet will showcase the mobile Internet for Chinese consumers with personalized services such as search, navigation, games, video, music, ringtones, and wallpapers, as well as mobile enterprise applications for Chinese corporations. In this context, Mr. Lu stressed the importance of localized R&D and recognized Bytemobile’s recent opening of a development center to serve the specific needs of the Chinese market.
As of March 31, 2009, CMCC reported a subscriber base of 477.2 million, having added 19.9 million new customers during the first quarter.
-Jaishree Subramania
Tags: china mobile, enterprise applications, mobile communications, mobile internet, mobile market application, personalized services, subscriber base, td-scdma network, web gateway