Sanyo makes second foray into Hong Kong's 3G market

A Japanese home appliance giant known more for its rice cookers than its electronics prowess hopes to grab a big slice of the mobile-phone market as consumers replace their handsets with faster third-generation models.

Hong Kong consumers are more likely to see the Sanyo name on air conditioners than mobile phones. But Sanyo hopes that will change once its S103 3G slider phone becomes exclusively available to SmarTone Telecommunications subscribers later this month.

The model will mark Sanyo's return to Hong Kong's mobile-phone market. Its first foray was a failed partnership to supply Hutchison Telecommunications with CDMA handsets.

'What we are doing now is we are planting the seeds for our 3G business,' said Eiji Kotobuki, Sanyo's chief operating officer of consumer business.

While gadget users in Hong Kong might not be familiar with Sanyo's handsets, mobile phones are a key part of the company's consumer business. Handsets contributed more than 300 billion yen ($22.17 billion) of the division's 630 billion yen in sales in 2003.

In Britain, Sanyo has been supplying its S750 3G phone - a cousin to the S103 - to Orange. The model boasts a 2.4-inch screen that occupies almost 85 per cent of the phone's surface area. The keypad is 'hidden' neatly behind a sliding face.

At home, Sanyo's reputation in mobile phones is unquestioned due to its dominance in CDMA handsets. The company is the No2 vendor and also the second-largest CDMA phone supplier to United States carrier Sprint, following Samsung.