Facing a slowdown in subscriber growth, China Unicom is set to slash prices on its cheapest smartphones as it continues to expand its high-speed 3G network across the mainland this year.
President Lu Yimin unveiled the strategy yesterday at an industry event in Shanghai. Meanwhile, the carrier's shares declined in Hong Kong after it reported adding fewer new 3G subscribers last month.
Shares in China Unicom, the mainland's second-largest wireless network operator, fell 3.88 per cent to close at HK$10.40 yesterday, their biggest drop in two weeks. The stock has lost 36 per cent this year, making it the worst performer of the Hang Seng Index, according to Bloomberg.
Speaking at start of the three-day GSMA Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai, Lu said China Unicom would offer its cheapest smartphones for less than 700 yuan (HK$860) this year, a 30 per cent discount. Lu did not detail the time frame for selling the cheaper smartphones, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
China Unicom already offers low-end smartphones for less than 1,000 yuan each from domestic brands, including Huawei Technologies and ZTE, China's two biggest telecommunications equipment makers.
According to combined data from Strategy Analytics and Bernstein Research, 84 million smartphones were sold on the mainland last year.
Most of those handsets were priced in the mid-range of 1,200 yuan to 1,900 yuan and in the premium range of more than 1,900 yuan. Prices of Apple's popular iPhone 4S, for example, start at 4,988 yuan.