Budget phone-maker Coolpad thinks it can sell more 4G smartphones than Samsung in China this year

January 12, 2014 Leave a comment

Budget phone-maker Coolpad thinks it can sell more 4G smartphones than Samsung in China this year

January 3, 2014

by Paul Bischoff

Shenzhen-based budget smartphone maker Coolpad (HKG:2369) says it aims to sell more 4G handsets in China than Samsung (KRX:005935) in 2014, according to Tech 163. That’s a big claim for a company that sold less than half as many phones as Samsung in China last year.But with China’s big 4G turn-on in progress, 4G smartphones will be a fresh battleground for domestic brands to fight back against Samsung’s dominance. The South Korean smartphone maker is currently the market leader with 21 percent of the Chinese market as of Q3 2013, according to Canalys. Coolpad was the third best-selling smartphone brand in China as of Q3 2013, following Lenovo (HKG:0992). To achieve its goal, Coolpad set a target of 60 million smartphone shipments in total for 2014: 40 million 4G phones and 20 million 3G.

Coolpad has already teamed up with China Mobile to sell an RMB 1,000 ($165) Qualcomm-powered 4G phone on the world’s biggest carrier. Three more 4G-enabled products are expected this month. Coolpad’s strategy is to target consumers on a budget who still want 4G connectivity. With an array of cheap new smartphones on the way, Coolpad hopes to undercut the competition early in the 4G race.

Coolpad phones are available in about a dozen countries including the US and Europe, but domestic sales account for 90 percent of its shipments. In its home market, Coolpad is being chased hard by other domestic brands like ZTE, Huawei, and Xiaomi.

Filed under TMT Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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