China Mobile Limited (CML), the world's largest telecommunication firm by users, announced on Friday the incorporation of a new company to accelerate its development of 3G and smartphone technology.
The new firm, China Mobile Terminal Co. Ltd, will handle the customization, tests, procurement, sales and service of the group's third-generation, or "3G", devices, said Li Yue, CML's Chief Executive Officer.
A wholly owned subsidiary of CML, its development of terminals - including phones, tablets and other mobile Internet devices - will focus particularly on the "time-division" (TD) variant of 3G. Currently, there are about 120 TD terminal manufacturers in the world, 50 of which are TD mobile phone makers.
China Mobile Terminal said it will expand TD terminal sales to 60 million units, including more than 30 million smart phones, in 2012.
The new firm will also speed up the research and development of Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE), China's home-grown fourth-generation mobile-telecommunications technology.
CML's move to create this new subsidiary is a bid to capitalize on the burgeoning 3G market in China and consumers' demand for cutting-edge terminals with more powerful functions and richer applications.
China Mobile had 633 million mobile phone users and 43 million 3G customers at the end of September, according to the group's third-quarter report.