The China government's crackdown on unlicensed handsets prior to the Olympics had an influence on sales for white-box handset makers as well as chipset provider MediaTek. However, during the games white-box handsets have became more popular among consumers wanting to watch events while mobile, prompting IC distributors to predict MediaTek should be able to adjust its sales growth target to 15% in the third quarter.

In order to improve its international image, the China government made efforts to restrict illegal handsets before Olympics.

Affordable white-box handsets supporting China's China mobile multimedia broadcasting (CMMB) mobile TV standard have recently appealed to consumers wanting to follow the Olympic Games during work hours, market watchers pointed out.

The market watchers also noted that sales of white-box handsets in August are expected to increase 3-5 fold compared with sales in July, and MediaTek's August sales are likely to be higher than July's, which were the highest so far in 2008.

Source:DIGITIMES