In the China market, vendors of white-box handsets equipped with China's self-developed mobile TV functionality, CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting), have lowered their retail prices from 1,400-1,500 yuan (US$204-219) to below 1,000 yuan, and this is expected to bring strong competitive pressure on vendors/makers of MP4 players that sell their devices for 700-1,000 yuan, but without CMMB functionality, according to sources in Taiwan's MP3 player industry in Taiwan.

Elitek, a local handset brand in China, has even offered a CMMB-enabled handset for as low as 700 yuan, the sources indicated.

Although the China government had cracked down on vendors of white-box CMMB-enabled handsets before the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games because these devices were not officially validated, such handsets have been selling due to the increased demand for users that were looking to watch the Olympic games, the sources pointed out.

Most makers of white-box CMMB-enabled handsets have adopted chipset solutions provided by Taiwan-based MediaTek as well as China-based Innofidei, TelePath Technologies and Spreadturn Communications, with US$15-17 charged for a core CMMB chipset and a total cost of US$22-25 for a complete component kit including TV tuner, the sources indicated. However, Israel-based Siano Mobile Silicon has recently offered a less expensive CMMB chipset at US$12-13, allowing the cost of component kits to drop to US$17-20 and providing room for retail prices to fall, the sources indicated.

As screen sizes of CMMB-enabled handsets range from 2.8 inched to 3.2 inches, MP4 players with screens of 4.0-4.3 inches do have an advantage, the sources analyzed. However, makers of MP4 players in China still need to to integrate CMMB functionality into their new models, the sources noted.

Source:DIGITIMES