China 3G launch – cheers or jeers?

With the world’s spotlight set to shine on China as the Olympics draws near, the country is trying hard to deliver on its promise of making available third-generation (3G) mobile services by next month.

But how exactly this will be a boon to phone users remains a question mark, industry watchers say.

In late April, the Chinese authorities announced that they would distribute 15,000 3G handsets to the Beijing Organizing Committee. This would allow the Games officials, staff and volunteers to watch televised programmes, play videos and surf the Internet over high-speed data transmissions on the cell phone.

But there is still no indication or announcement pertaining to how foreign visitors could easily access 3G during the Games, according to an industry source.

Beijing has been gearing up to create its Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access, or TD-SCDMA, standard since 2001 in an attempt to create opportunities for its telecommunications firms. This is also to avoid coughing up huge licensing fees for developers of the other two more popular 3G standards – Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, or WCDMA, and CDMA-2000 – which have been approved by China for use in the mainland.

On April 1, China finally launched its first commercial 3G trial across eight cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen – despite the launch coming five years later than other advanced markets.

China Mobile, the country’s largest cell phone operator which introduced the service, made available only 60,000 3G handsets – one-third were allocated for a select group of users to experiment on a complimentary basis, plus an 800 yuan (RM360) subsidy per user every month.

The remaining handsets were sold on the market at between 2,000 yuan and 4,000 yuan. Only six phone models and two types of data card for laptop users were available.

“China Mobile isn’t too ambitious in pushing the service on the mass scale. Subsidy for the 3G phones is not much, and these phones are pricey to acquire,” said Fang Meiqin, principal analyst with research firm BDA China.

Technical glitches such as poor signal coverage during the commercial trial are also a turn-off.

“There were lags and mosaics in the video calls... even audio calls were cut off during conversations,” Fang said, describing her experience testing the phones.

To attract more users to sign up for the novel service, she suggested dual-network handsets to allow users a quick switch from 3G to 2G if the former signal is weak.

“The launch certainly encountered some hiccups – the same situation other operators encountered when they started promoting their respective 3G services,” Fang said, adding that it will take at least two years for 3G to gain ground in China.

Following the selected eight Chinese cities, more 3G work is expected next year to deploy base stations for another 300 cities across the mainland.

Fast facts on China handset market

• Total users: 565.2 million (more than the US population of 303 million)

• China Mobile subscribers: 392.1 million

• China Mobile users’ average monthly phone bill: 82 yuan

• China Unicom subscribers: 167 million

• China Unicom users’ average monthly phone bill: 43.3 yuan

* Figures as at first quarter of this year

Is your PC low-cost enough?

Super affordable price tags. Simple to use interface. Low-cost computers are now causing a stir in the PC industry, with so many companies joining the fray. Jason Tan finds out more.

Hong Kong recently faced its first typhoon of the year, which brought massive rain and winds. Despite such weather conditions, nearly 1,000 eager beavers flocked to Mongkok, Kowloon, to get their hands on the latest Eee PC.

All of the 1,000 units allocated for the global premiere in Hong Kong were snapped up that day.

Weighing less than 1kg and going for below RM2,000, the Eee PC 900 is expected to make the same impact as when the first low-cost computers hit consumers.

The fever of low-cost computers has not only caught on in Hong Kong. More consumers across the globe – especially those who need a PC for simple Internet browsing – are buying into the idea of having such machines as their second PC.

Take Ross Chang, a twentysomething Web designer in Macau who bought the first-generation Eee PC 701 four months ago.

“It comes in handy when I bring it to cafes to surf the Net, do simple document work, and fire messages on MSN,” he said.

He can easily slip the laptop, which weighs less than one kilogram with its seven-inch screen, into his backpack.

Last October, when Taiwan’s Asustek Computer launched its first Eee PC – whose new acronym stands for “Easy, Exciting and Economic”, instead of the earlier “Easy to learn, easy to play, and easy to work” – it did not expect the low-cost PC to become the latest buzzword in the PC industry.

Bigger rivals such as Acer, the world’s No. 3 computer maker, also underestimated the threat from smaller, lower-margin laptops, casting doubt over whether users would buy such “simple-functioning machines”.

But then, the US$200 (RM660) Eee PC 701 is much cheaper than the US$1,000 price tag for an entry-level laptop.

Well, figures say it all. Asustek statistics show that it has sold one million units of the Eee PC since its debut until March.

The new Eee PC 900 has an 8.9-inch screen, 1.3-megapixel camera and 12-gigabyte or 20GB solid-state drive. At NT$15,988 (RM1,705), this model comes with either the Linux or Windows operating system.

Surprisingly, the Linux model, which accounted for 60 per cent of the first sales, is well-received by Taiwanese consumers, said Asustek’s product manager Jose Liao.

“The overall user-friendliness and other applications bundled in will matter more to consumers when choosing low-cost computers. We leave the choice to them.”

Indeed, Asustek has a slew of rivals closely tailing its back. Other Taiwanese computer makers such as Elitegroup Computer Systems, Micro-Star International and Gigabyte Technology have all unveiled plans to grab a slice of the pie.

At the recent Computex Taipei trade show, Acer introduced its first ultra-low-cost laptop armed with Intel’s Atom microprocessor. Also lighter than 1kg, this machine makes a good fit for those looking for a handheld device with PC-like Internet experience, said company president Gianfranco Lanci.

Foreign bigwigs have not been spared from the frenzy either.

In early April, US-based Hewlett-Packard introduced its first low-cost notebook, the 2133 Mini-Note, aimed at the education market. Hitting stores with prices that start from NT$17,900, the machine weighs 1.2kg, is 33 millimetres thin and has an 8.9-inch screen. Wireless is built-in, and Webcam is optional.

Consumers are set to benefit with more launches on the cards.

Chua Chiow Boon, a stockbroker in Malacca, is considering buying a low-cost laptop.

“Low-cost PCs are smaller and make a good substitute to the bulky laptop I have at home,” he said.