Handset Designs – Made In China

As the world’s largest cell phone consumer, China is now becoming known for handset designs as well. New design houses are emerging in some of China's largest cities, and major manufacturers have also expanded their handset designs divisions in the past year.

China’s Ministry of Information Industry says that they predict 300 million Chinese will own cell phones by the end of 2004. While leading the market for handsets, until recently, almost all handset designing and manufacturing took place outside of the country.

Cell phone industry leaders like Nokia, Motorola and Siemens are now starting to move more of their design factories to China, with Nokia increasing its design staff in Beijing by 20 percent and Siemens moving the headquarters of its Asia-Pacific mobile phone division to China. Siemens also plans to increase its design staff from 180 to 1,600 by the end of 2005. Having introduced its 6108 handset, Nokia says that the handset was designed entirely in Beijing.

Those who know, say that designing handsets for the Chinese market is challenging. Chinese vendors stock as many as 800 different mobile handsets because Chinese consumers want more features. Digital cameras, with 65,000-color display are now standard on most handsets sold in the country.

Also see; best cell phones.

Author Notes:

Jack Adams contributes and publishes news editorial to http://www.cell-phones-n-plans.com. A cellular phone industry resource that features service plan comparisons, cellular phone reviews and articles.