China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), the world’s biggest mobile operator by subscribers, yesterday said it had picked Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) to make its electronic readers.
Hon Hai is expected to ship the first batch of electronic readers for China Mobile in the first half of next year, China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou (王建宙) told a media briefing in Taipei.
The Taiwanese firm is also designing electronic readers for the Joint Innovation Lab, formed by China Mobile, Vodafone, Softbank and Verizone Wireless, Wang said. The alliance aims to jointly develop new devices and purchase electronics for subscribers at reduced cost.
“We believe the electronic reader market will be huge,” Wang said. “I feel it will appeal to our users.”
The Chinese mobile carrier has a total of 500 million users, with 300 million subscribing to its music downloading service and 40 million signed up to its online news service, Wang said.
China Mobile did not rule out the possibility of seeking a second supplier of electronic readers in Taiwan.
China Mobile budgeted 180 billion yuan (US$26.3 billion) for capital spending this year, including on handsets and other electronics products, Wang said.
Separately, China Mobile is scheduled to sign an agreement with HTC Corp (宏達電), which makes the world’s first Android-based handsets, on Monday to jointly develop TDSCDMA-based mobile phones, Wang said. TDSCDMA is a third-generation (3G) technology used only in China.
By the end of this year, HTC will launch at least one TDSCDMA phone, running on the new Open Mobile System operating system, developed by the Chinese mobile operator, and there will be a further five models available next year, Wang said.
“Our 3G system is ready for the mass market. Now, what we need most are high-quality handsets at affordable prices,” Wang said.
China Mobile aims to increase its number of 3G subscribers to 85 million by 2012, he said.
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