Illegal mobiles phones encroach on Chinese market

Chinanews, Beijing, June 27 – During the first half of this year, a total of 266.8 million Chinese-made mobile phones have been sold either within China or exported to other countries, 33% more than the same period last year. However, according to a report released by CCID Consulting firm, illegally produced mobile phones occupy nearly one-fourth of the mobile phone market. These illegal mobile phones encroach upon the market shares of other legal, branded mobile phones. The market shares of brand mobile phones have shrunk to 33.8%, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

　　The Economic Reform and Operation Department under the Ministry¹ of Information Industry on Tuesday issued a report about the sales of mobile phones in China. The information shows that from January to June, about 227.25 million mobile phones have been sold for 3G network and 39.55 million mobile phones for CDMA network. Of these, 130.98 million were exported between January and May. Although the figure for the export in June has not come out yet, CCID Consulting firm estimates that about 72.2 million mobile phones might have been sold during the first six months of the year (not including illegal mobile phones).

“In our investigation², we find that about 23.43 million illegally produced mobile phones have been sold in China during the first half of this year,” said Jiang Lifeng, general manager of the CCID Consulting firm’s Electronic Goods Consumption and Industrial Research Center.

 

This means that illegal mobile phones have taken 25% of the domestic market share.

 

At present, illegal mobile phones sold in the market usually consist of three types, smuggled³ goods, non-branded goods, and goods made by assembling the spare parts of used mobile phones.