China-based handset vendors, including Coolpad, Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Gionee, K-Touch and TCL, have each accelerated the launch of their 4G LTE smartphones in an attempt to grab market share from international players, notably Samsung Electronics and Apple, according to industry sources.
Samsung and Apple combined account for an 80% share of China's 4G LTE smartphone market, while Coolpad takes another 10%. Other vendors share the remaining 10%, the sources noted.
With MediaTek planning to launch LTE-enabled 8-core smartphone solutions in the second half of 2014, China-based handset vendors will speed up the release of 4G models, which could bring the mainstream price of 4G smartphones to below CNY1,000 (US$161), compared to CNY1,500-2,000 currently, the sources said.
Coolpad plans to release as many as 30 4G smartphones in 2013, with its monthly smartphone orders reaching three million units, indicated the sources.
Meanwhile, ZTE and TCL each aim to ramp up the ratio of 4G LTE models to over 60% of their total smartphone sales in 2014.