China Mobile sells 60M 3G devices in 2012, hopes for double
updated 09:04 am EST, Wed January 23, 2013
Expects 80-percent of 2013 TD-SCDMA sales to be smartphones
China Mobile has sold over 60 million TD-SCDMA-based mobile devices during 2012, the company revealed today. Wang Hengjiang, deputy general manager of products for China Mobile, made the claim at Qualcomm's QRD Summit in Shenzen, including that at least seven million of that total came from sales in December alone.
Wang also said that China Mobile is aiming to sell twice as many TD-SCDMA devices in 2013, 80-percent of which will consist of smartphones, reports Engadget. As it stands, China Mobile currently has over 220 million users of its 3G service in the country, with the sales push for an extra 120 million making that total around 340 million subscribers, excluding service cancellations. The discussions between Apple CEO Tim Cook and China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua was not brought up at the event, making it unclear what proportion of sales will consist of iPhones, if any.
In terms of introducing LTE to the country, Wang confirmed it will be conducting user trials for TD-LTE services throughout 2013, with phone tests scheduled for the second half of 2013. The TD-LTE service is expected to be ready at some point in 2014 or 2015, depending on the results of the user trials.
