South Korea-based Samsung and Shenzhen-based ZTE have become the biggest winners of CDMA contracts from China Telecom in the latest procurement of CDMA cell phones, followed by LG, Hisense, and Huawei Technologies. Some new bidders such as Amoi Electronics have also met their harvest time.

More than 30 telecom equipment makers were bidding for the contracts, reflecting the positive view of them toward the prospect of the CDMA market after China Telecom takes over the CDMA network from China Unicom.

Before 2007, the main bidders for contracts of China Telecom were Samsung, ZTE, LG, Hisense, Motorola, Nokia, UT, Konka, Haier, and so on. This time, they all took part in the latest round of bidding.

This time China Telecom planned to procure 5 million CDMA cell phones. Samsung gained the biggest order of 1 million sets. During the past few years, Samsung has been taking a lead in China's CDMA cell phone market in terms of market share.

Though LG has been boasting of the largest shipment of CMDA cell phones globally, it can hardly compete head-to-head with Samsung in China, the number one cell phone maker and consumer in the world.

ZTE won a contract of 900,000 sets, ranking the second place. As a big CDMA cell phone manufacturer, ZTE will provide China Telecom with five latest CDMA models, covering market at all levels.

Motorola grabbed 3% of the contracts from China Telecom with merely one model. Lately the company rolled out its latest CDMA cell phone V950 in North America, which was co-developed with telecom carriers Sprint and Cellular.

Hisense won 10% of the contracts. In early 2002, Hisense unveiled the first CDMA handset of China C2101. And it has been in the list of low- and mid-end CMDA suppliers of China Telecom during the past a couple of years.

It is worth noting that some names were on the list for the first time, they were Ningbo Bird, K-Touch OKwap, Gionee, GXT, and Aigo. Among them all, several models of Ningbo Bird, Gionee, and K-Touch won the bid, respectively.

As a new face, Amoi Electronics has stood out for its unique characteristics. The company extended its reach beyond the GSM sector to CMDA in October last year, when it launched six CMDA handsets in a breath. It will provide China Telecom with 20,000 CDMA cell phones with built-in GPS function.

Source:SinoCast