Ericsson to invest heavily in the Chinese market

Ericsson to invest heavily in the Chinese market

Sweden based telecommunications giant Ericsson has announced plans to invest heavily in the Chinese market. The plan is for the next five years and the company would be emphasizing on the wireless services in one of the fastest growing markets in the world. They would be improving their manufacturing capabilities in this country and establish more research and development centers.

The aim is to increase the service area in this country as the company plans to expand their client base. Ericsson is looking towards positioning itself at the frontier of the next generation of wireless mobile networks and phones market popularly known as the 3G. China expects to release 3G technology licenses sometime next year, which would bring a boom for these companies working for developing 3G enabled products.

Ericsson Greater China president Mats Olsson said in a statement: “Here in China there are probably eight vendors with ambitions to play a role in 3G. Our ambition is to maintain a level of around 35 percent market share across 3G (third generation).” Japan is currently the frontiers of 3G when it comes to availability of technology and the development of related products.

Company president and chief executive Cark-Henric Svanberg added: “There are fewer players that really can do the necessary investments in third-generation technology so the number of suppliers coming from 2G to 3G is becoming fewer.” This would help them take the initiative in this country, which has one of the fastest growing mobile communities.

Ericsson already has a pretty impressive 35 percent share in the existing GSM/GPRS market. They also happen to be one of the biggest suppliers to China Mobile. Their new initiative would just compliment their services and products in this country. China had 334.82 million cell phone users at the end of 2004, representing 25.9 percent of its population. This shows the huge potential the country has for these mobile related countries.