China's ZTE Overtakes Apple in Handset Sales Rankings

By: Vincent Chang | 28th Oct 2011

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global handset shipments grew 14 percent annually to reach 390 million units in the third quarter of 2011. ­China's ZTE surpassed Apple to become the world's fourth largest handset vendor, while Samsung's marketshare reached record-high levels.

Alex Spektor, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, " Despite ongoing economic volatility, global handset shipments grew a relatively healthy 14 percent annually to reach 390 million units in Q3 2011. Zte was the star performer as it captured 5 percent market share and overtook Apple to become the world's fourth largest handset vendor. ZTE's growth is being driven by competitive pricing of entry-level models for feature phones and Android smartphones."

Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, " Nokia's global handset shipments edged down 3 percent annually to 107 million units in Q3 2011. Nokia's strong sales of its entry-level dual-SIM models in emerging markets were counterbalanced by weak demand for its high-end Symbian phones in developed regions. The recent Microsoft Lumia announcements have come at a good time to help Nokia's stagnant smartphone volumes. Hot on Nokia's heels, second-ranked Samsung continued to grow and reached an all-time-high marketshare of 23 percent, fuelled by robust shipments of its high-end Galaxy S2 superphone."

Other findings from the research include:

• LG shipped just 21 million handsets worldwide in Q3 2011, as its Optimus One line of affordable smartphones lost some market momentum
• Apple slipped to fifth place in our marketshare rankings, as the delayed launch of the refreshed iPhone 4S yielded the vendor's weakest quarter of the year.

Global Handset Vendor Shipments and Market Share in Q3 2011

Spice Group chairman BK Modi back to running business, plans to raise a billion dollars

27 Oct, 2011, 0940 hrs IST,  Lison Joseph & Satish John,  ET Bureau

MUMBAI: Clad in an ash-coloured waist coat, blue jeans and a straw-coloured hat, Bhupendra Kumar Modi, chairman of the Rs 9,800-crore Spice group could easily be mistaken for a Bollywood producer. For sure, he has interests in the entertainment industry but it is the mobile handset industry that is giving him the rush of adrenalin, these days.

Not since 1982, when he famously rode the Modi Xerox joint venture into India, has he been so excited as he is now. In the early eighties, Modi was the single-point gateway for many foreign multinational corporations keen on entering India. Then, about 25 MNCs tapped Modi to facilitate their India foray.

Straight out of the strategy session with senior executives - at his new headquarters in a modern, glass and steel building mysteriously named 'Boomerang' in Mumbai's Saki Naka - Modi shares with ET his ambitious plans for the future.

At about the same time, his daughter Divya Modi was in Stockholm selling probably a very similar story to European investors at a road show to raise funds for his mobility business.

" We are looking to raise about $100 million this year, and perhaps another billion dollars next year," Modi says casually. At the pace at which he has been acquiring companies across Southeast Asia, and his still insatiate appetite for more, Modi would certainly need the money. He is currently negotiating with three companies - Techno in South Africa, QMobile in Vietnam and Cherry Mobile in Philippines.

His biggest purchase so far has been an Indonesian handset manufacturer Nexian, which he bought in May for around $175 million according to business magazine Forbes. In 2009, flush with cash - about Rs 2,700 crore - from the sale of his Indian telecom operations under the banner Spice Communication to Idea Cellular, Modi was looking for suitable assets in Southeast Asian economies.

However, he soon realised that the firms he wanted to buy preferred to work with an Asian company and not necessarily an Indian company. So in 2009, Modi bought the Singapore-listed firm Mediaring for S$60 million. He renamed it Si2i, where i2i stands for Indonesia to Ivory Coast, making it his umbrella firm for Asian operations. Mediaring gave Modi access to subsidiaries in Tokyo, Kuala Lampur, Shanghai and Beijing. Armed with Mediaring, Modi went shopping for handset makers across neighbouring countries.

First to be folded into Modi's i2i was Malaysia's CL group, in which he picked up 65% for $25 million. He followed up with NewTel of Thailand with a popular local brand called Blueberry. For the $22 million that Modi paid for NewTel he also got operational bases in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. The acquisitions are aimed at helping Modi increase handsets sales from the current 1.5 million pieces to 10 million a month over the next three years. " Don't judge us by what we sell now," says Modi.

" Judge us by what we are going to sell." " Emerging markets are high growth markets. Sales are higher than matured markets. This is an ideal strategy for mobile phone handset makers who are looking for high growth," says Anshul Gupta of Gartner's principal research analyst. " We are in talks with leading handset makers in the Philippines and Vietnam," Modi said. That is besides his planned big buy in South Africa, where Modi is close to buying a local brand that claims sales of about 1.3 million handsets a month across the African continent.

Even as he is stitching together a pan-Asian story, investors are yet to give him the thumbs up. To be fair, Modi has no qualms in admitting that his listed firm in Singapore is not doing well, at least when looked at from the share price perspective. Integration of all the companies he has been picking up in the Asian markets may also be one reason why investors are wary, at least for now. " They are looking to see our story," Modi said speculating on possible investor rationale for not rushing to his company's shares.

On His Indian Competitors

With Modi talking mobile handsets and talking of millions of unit sales a month, it is only fair to compare what he wants to do with famous Indian handset stories such as Micromax. Although Micromax popularised it, Spice was the first to introduce dual-SIM mobile phones in India. However, Spice is generally perceived to have failed to capitalise on that first-mover advantage. " They (Micromax) are very good at mobiles." But that's where the comparison ends according to Modi. " I don't know whether they will be able to make the transition to mobile internet. They do not have the value added services. We have." Modi goes on to point out that Micromax does not own a handset retail chain, which he does - about 800 stores.

The Story So Far

To back up a little and trace his footsteps, in 1982, Modi believed he had created its own identity for his fledgling group. He started with two copy shops, one in Delhi and one in Mumbai with four demo machines he got from Xerox free of cost. The demo machines were to be sent back to the firm in six months, but Modi managed to get extensions without having to return it. Although he was a joint venture partner, he wanted to run it his way but with the branding of the MNC and laws around foreign ownership helped Modi. " I was working with Xerox and not under them. That was the best decision I took in my life, when we created the company keeping in mind the culture of India, the customer requirements," he remembers with nostalgia. There were huge learnings from that venture. Eventually in early 90s, when Indian government opened up the gates and relaxed rules around foreign ownership, Modi sold his share to Xerox for a handsome profit.

The Come Back

This is probably his third attempt to make it big in business. After the Modi Xerox exit and several other joint ventures, he had dived into the then-nascent mobile telephony market in India, with operations in Punjab and Karnataka which he later sold for a neat profit to Idea Cellular. Modi had raised quite a few eyebrows in 2003 when he took an early sabbatical at the age of 50. He renounced his business interests in favour of his wife and son to practice vipaasana and became a Buddhist, only to soon return to the rough and tumble of running a business house. It all started when Modi once called his son Dilip from London. Dilip was visiting his grandfather's - Modi's father's - memorial for inspiration. Modi's immediate reaction was, " Aren't you missing the link in between - me, your father?" Slowly came the realisation that he is not anywhere close to what his father was in stature and accomplishment.

Of Hat And Casual Attire

Modi may be a rarity, in that, he is one of the very few Indian business personalities to be seen perpetually wearing a hat. When Modi decided to come out of the ashram, he sported an hirsute look. Obviously, it did not go well with his taking over the reins of the company. For a company that caters to the youth, the chairman should have a style that he could call his own. " When I went to America and Facebook's office, I saw that everybody was wearing jeans," Modi said. " Look at the attire of Steve Jobs, he had to relate to his customers, he has to connect with them." That's when he decided on his trade mark attire of blue jeans, waist coat and hat, Modi says.

Father, Son And Daughter Team

With the riches from the Spice stake sale, Modi was grappling on how to deploy the money. " I was discussing with my son and daughter. We can either create a diversified group or we can create one company," he reasons. So McKinsey, the management consulting firm asked the Modis, what do you want? His ambition was to become a " top group" . " If you want to make 10 billion into 20 billion and you can make $20billion in one industry, the way forward is not to set up five industries, the consultants reasoned " That's how it started," he explains of his move to set up a beachhead in Singapore.

The Other Modi

His nephew, Lalit of IPL is the other Modi in the news. Quiz him about his nephew, with whom he enjoys good rapport, Modi is philosophical. " You can't run a public company like it is a private company. Somehow, he lost that. He tried to run BCCL as a private company. He was very successful at that. I follow the law of the land. It is foolish not to follow it," he says.

Nokia Shows Off Six New Mobile Phones

By: Vincent Chang | 26th Oct 2011

­At Nokia World, the company has shown off the first smartphones in its Windows Phone-based Nokia Lumia range as well as four other models for developing markets.

" Eight months ago, we shared our new strategy and today we are demonstrating clear progress of this strategy in action. We're driving innovation throughout our entire portfolio, from new smartphone experiences to ever smarter mobile phones," said Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO.

As reported yesterday, the company had to confirm that its new smartphones will not be available in the USA until next year as it focuses on Europe and Asia first.

In addition to the new products, which include coverage for WCDMA and HSPA, Nokia also plans LTE and CDMA products to address specific local market requirements.

Nokia Lumia 800

The Nokia Lumia 800 features a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display and a 1.4GHz processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. The Nokia Lumia 800 contains an instant-share camera experience based on Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music.

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 800 will be approximately EUR 420, excluding taxes and subsidies.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is scheduled to roll-out across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK in November. It is scheduled to be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the end of the year, and in further markets in early 2012.

Nokia Lumia 710

With the same 1.4 GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor as the Nokia Lumia 800, the Nokia Lumia 710 is a cut-down version of the larger model.

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 710 will be approximately EUR 270, excluding taxes and subsidies.

The Nokia Lumia 710 is scheduled to be available first in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan toward the end of the year alongside the Nokia Lumia 800, before becoming available in further markets in early 2012.

Nokia Asha 303

The Nokia Asha 303 combines a large 2.6" capacitive touch screen with a QWERTY keypad. The device harnesses a 1Ghz processor, 3G and WLAN to deliver a fast Internet experience. Social networks, email and IM are at the center of the experience, easily accessible from the homescreen. The Nokia Asha 303 is powered by the cloud-based Nokia Browser, which by compressing the web by up to 90%, provides higher speeds and a more affordable access to the Internet.

Entertainment and applications are also a core part of the Nokia Asha 303 offering. Angry Birds Lite, the popular mobile game, comes preinstalled, together with support for other globally relevant applications such as Facebook Chat, Whatsapp messaging and the latest release of Nokia Maps for Series 40 (in selected markets).

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 303 will be approximately EUR 115, excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Nokia Asha 300

The Nokia Asha 300 is a touch device which also offers the convenience of a keypad. The Nokia Asha 300 has a 1GHz processor and 3G to deliver a faster Internet and social networking experience. The Nokia Browser allows for fast, affordable and localized Internet access by compressing web pages by up to 90%.

Users have fast access to messaging, email and instant messaging from the home screen and can swipe to access apps, music or games from the Nokia Store. The Nokia Asha 300 also arrives preloaded with the popular Angry Birds game.

The Nokia Asha 300 comes with a 5 megapixel camera, a music player, FM radio, Bluetooth connectivity and can handle memory cards up to 32GB.

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 300 will be approximately EUR 85, excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Nokia Asha 200

The Nokia Asha 200 is Nokia's latest dual SIM phone with Easy Swap functionality, allowing consumers to easily change their second SIM without switching the device off.

The phone features integrated social networking, email and IM, adding RenRen, Orkut and Flickr support. Nokia Asha 200 makes it possible to carry thousands of songs with support for 32 GB memory cards and providing a battery for 52-hour playback time.

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 200 will be approximately EUR 60, excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Nokia Asha 201

The single SIM version of the Nokia Asha 200. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 201 will be approximately EUR 60, excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping in the first quarter of 2012.

Click on images to enlarge

Nokia Lumia 800

Nokia Lumia 710

Nokia Asha 303

Nokia Asha 300

Nokia Asha 201

Android corners low-cost smartphone market

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Nexian to Go Global, Teaming up with S i2i

IPhone 4S Sales May Reach 4 Million on Debut

Q

By Adam Satariano and Sarah Gill - Oct 14, 2011 9:01 AM GMT+0800

IPhone 4S Sales May Reach 4 Million This Weekend

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

The device, available today in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and U.K., is projected to outperform last year’s introduction of the iPhone 4, which topped 1.7 million units in its introductory weekend.

The device, available today in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and U.K., is projected to outperform last year’s introduction of the iPhone 4, which topped 1.7 million units in its introductory weekend. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Audio Download: GVA's Garrity Discusses the Apple iPhone 4S Release

Google Competition

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