Tony Munroe
HONG KONG: Software giant Microsoft Corp., scrambling for a share of the huge
global wireless market, said on Thursday that fast-growing China-based TCL
Mobile has signed a deal to use its mobile software standard in cellular phones
and handheld computers.
TCL Mobile, which is 30 per cent-owned by Hong Kong-listed TCL International
Holdings Ltd., sold 1.04 million mobile handsets in the first quarter of this
year, compared with 114,000 a year earlier, and is the biggest domestic player
in the world's largest mobile phone market.
Shenzhen-listed TCL Communications owns 40 per cent of TCL Mobile. Juha
Christensen, vice president of US-based Microsoft's mobility group, told Reuters
in a phone interview from Beijing that TCL is likely to begin producing a
version of Microsoft's voice-enabled Pocket PC Phone Edition by the fourth
quarter of this year.
TCL's version of the Windows Powered Smartphone, which will have a bigger
screen and more data capabilities than an ordinary handset, will likely be ready
in the second quarter of 2003. "It's really up to TCL how quickly they do
their engineering and pre-production and quality assurance and so on,"
Christensen said.
He declined to provide production targets. While numerous handheld device
makers use Microsoft software, few cellphone makers have thus far signed on to
its advanced offerings, although the company as inked partnerships with several
major mobile networks in Europe and the United States.
In addition to TCL, Microsoft's mobile handset partners include Korean giant
Samsung Electronics and Britain's Sendo Ltd., and Taiwan's High Tech Computer
and Compal Electronics.
Microsoft's rival in the handset space is British mobile software maker
Symbian, which was spun off from handheld computer maker Psion. Symbian's owners
include top cellphone makers Nokia, Motorola, Japanese-Swedish joint venture
Sony-Ericsson and Siemens.
"We believe that mobile devices with only voice functionality will end
up in the same category that pagers are in today," said TCL Mobile
president Wang Mingjian in a media release.
He said TCL's tie-up with Microsoft will help it reach its goal of being one
of the world's five largest makers of multimedia and mobile devices within three
to five years. Under terms of its non-exclusive deal with Microsoft, TCL will
pay the company a royalty based on the number of devices sold, Christensen said.