Revolution: Netbooks used to sell cell phones in China
Netbooks to be used to sell cell phones. This is a most unusual situation but it might just work. And if it does it will change the world of communications.
In China the government decided to have its own 3G, as well as the others, and its name was TD-SCDMA. In truth, at the beginning it did not work very well and quickly obtained an iffy reputation.
The government decided that the biggest mobile telecom providor in China, China Mobile, would handle it. China Mobile had no choice. It did as it was told.
With rat cunning and a policy which may change the world of mobile phone it decided to subsidize each cell phone with a Netbook already set up to handle TD-SDCMA WiFi. So you get a phone and a snazzy notebook which is affordable and WiFi access.
Every Netbook maker in the world is after the order and China Mobile can choose from HP, Dell, and Tsinghua Tongfang to market 20 models of TD Netbooks starting in the next month or so when the TD-SCDMA network is officially launched.
The idea is to get the price of the Netbooks to below RMB1,000 which is below US$147 and for that they have embedded TD/GSM dual-mode network cards. The telecom carrier is set to sell TD Netbooks first in the flagship store chains of Suning in Shanghai in late March.
The Chinese telecom carrier is pressing ahead with its “3+1 Solution”, which is designed to promote TD mobile phones, TD network cards, TD notebook computers, and TD wireless landline telephones.
This may, indeed, set a pattern for the world to follow.
According to TMCNet this year China Mobile will subsidize TD mobile phone buyers as much as RMB10 billion and it will bear all costs of the TD network cards that are to be installed in the TD notebook computers and Netbooks. And the TD notebooks and Netbooks will be coupled with a one-year Internet access service plan.
Amazing stuff. And it may show a direction for the future where you cellphone automatically links into you Netbook.
IT market research firm Analysys International forecasts that Chinese telecom carriers will customize 1.4 million Netbooks in 2009 and bring the number to 10 million by 2013.
Besides China Mobile, the other two leading wireless carriers China Telecom and China Unicom will also join the competition for the TD Netbook market.
The TD-SCDMA network of China Mobile is set to cover 95% of second-tier Chinese cities with 145,000 base stations. The second-stage of the network construction is scheduled to be completed by mid 2009. By that time, TD network of the Chinese mobile telecom operator will be expanded from ten cities to 38 cities. The number of potential users is beyond computation.
If this amazing and ultra-bright marketing trick works it will change the whole face of cell phones around the world. This is one to watch with the closes interest.
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