HTC China recently announced its new Dual-SIM mid-tier Android smartphone E1 in April 2013. But unlike the sea of mid-tier Android smartphones, HTC is differentiating this device by offering online buyers in HTC eShop to "customize" the E1's specs such as color, memory size or camera megapixels, thus, a "made-to-order" device.

On entering the eShop page for E1, users are presented to input their "Birth Date" & "Gender" using which the HTC eShop's algorithm spits out a suggested configuration (case color, memory size, camera megapixels) as a part of the online customization experience. Users are obviously free to choose or tweak their own configuration as well.

This though is a basic customization effort but a very interesting and novel step from HTC to differentiate from other Android OEMs especially in markets such as China where Android dominates with 9 out of 10 smartphones sold. We expect to see more "customization" efforts from OEMs this year to make the smartphone buying experience highly engaging and also the device to be bought to truly match user's requirements making it more personalized and differentiated. 

Our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service tracked Coolpad ranked the 11^th largest smartphone vendor globally in 2012, with 2.6% marketshare. It grew smartphone volume by 108% YoY from 2011, indicating the Shenzhen-based Chinese vendor is ambitious to push into the top 10 club this year.

The company is on the right track to become a 3G smartphone specialist, with an encouraging breakthrough recently also in the North American 4G LTE market. Its first LTE phone at MetroPCS achieved an encouraging start last year.

However, how to further define and implement its overseas strategy, especially in North America and West Europe, remains the key for the rising Chinese brand. We would recommend Coolpad to:

- Launch a decent flagship model with a unified sub-brand (like Samsung Galaxy, Huawei Ascend does) globally;

- Initially target prepaid carriers / customers because prepaid segment is price-sensitive and accessible for Chinese brands;

- Prepare for the potential IPR risks associated with overseas expansion. Coolpad is reportedly have accumulated over 4000 handset related patents at this moment, however, it is still vulnerable to get involved into IPR war. We believe patent swap would be an effective way to ease risks;

- Branding and marketing initiatives are needed to tap into richer customers in developed markets;

- Prepare for the direct competition with Huawei and ZTE in overseas market. Compared with the two rivals, Coolpad exclusively focuses on the smartphone market and lacks synergy among different product lineups. We would recommend Coolpad to further differentiate from rivals with improved hardware designs and more localized services and apps (e.g. social networking);

- Balance volume and profitability. Shifting upwards with more mid- and high-tier models, in order to improve ASP and profit margin, which will ensure the Hong Kong listed-company has sufficient cash on hands for the upcoming overseas expansion.

Our Handset Country Share Tracker (CST) team attended the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone at Radio City in New York, US, on Thursday 14th March, 2013. Several thousand attendees joined the event.

We trialed the S4 earlier this week and were briefed on the strategy behind it. This is a concise summary of our initial analysis:

Key Hardware: As expected, the S4 contains a 5.0-inch, full-HD, super AMOLED display with an impressive 441ppi in a rounded-slate formfactor. There are Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core / Samsung Exynos octo-core chipsets, varying by region. Other specs include 2GB RAM, dual-camera, NFC and MHL. The S4 looks visually similar to the previous S3, but the materials feel better quality and it is slimmer, lighter and nicer to hold in the hand.

Key Software: Samsung has clearly worked hard on its software and the results are impressive. There is finger-hover for the touchscreen, gesture recognition, improved eye-tracking, and better camera-editing.

Key Services: Samsung has layered a rich suite of Samsung proprietary services on top of the Android Jelly Bean OS. There are plenty of “S” services, such as S-Health and S-Translator. Google will be worried by this.

The S4 will launch commercially in the US and worldwide at the end of April 2013. Versions will support 3G, 4G and TD-LTE. There are 325 carriers in 166 countries onboard, such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Pricing will be Note-like.

We forecast tens of millions of units to be shipped worldwide this year. Provided there are no major "hidden" bugs that become apparent after launch, the S4 will be another blockbuster product for Samsung.

Which competitors will be impacted by the S4? Apple, LG, Sony, HTC, Blackberry, Nokia, Huawei, ZTE and Motorola will all be getting some sleepless nights in the next few weeks. Models such as iPhone 5 and HTC One could feel some pain.

We will publish a full report to clients on Friday 15th March, 2013.

Our Handset Country Share Tracker (CST) team attended the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone at Radio City in New York, US, on Thursday 14th March, 2013. Several thousand attendees joined the event.

We trialed the S4 earlier this week and were briefed on the strategy behind it. This is a concise summary of our initial analysis:

Key Hardware: As expected, the S4 contains a 5.0-inch, full-HD, super AMOLED display with an impressive 441ppi in a rounded-slate formfactor. There are Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core / Samsung Exynos octo-core chipsets, varying by region. Other specs include 2GB RAM, dual-camera, NFC and MHL. The S4 looks visually similar to the previous S3, but the materials feel better quality and it is slimmer, lighter and nicer to hold in the hand.

Key Software: Samsung has clearly worked hard on its software and the results are impressive. There is finger-hover for the touchscreen, gesture recognition, improved eye-tracking, and better camera-editing.

Key Services: Samsung has layered a rich suite of Samsung proprietary services on top of the Android Jelly Bean OS. There are plenty of “S” services, such as S-Health and S-Translator. Google will be worried by this.

The S4 will launch commercially in the US and worldwide at the end of April 2013. Versions will support 3G, 4G and TD-LTE. There are 325 carriers in 166 countries onboard, such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Pricing will be Note-like.

We forecast tens of millions of units to be shipped worldwide this year. Provided there are no major "hidden" bugs that become apparent after launch, the S4 will be another blockbuster product for Samsung.

Which competitors will be impacted by the S4? Apple, LG, Sony, HTC, Blackberry, Nokia, Huawei, ZTE and Motorola will all be getting some sleepless nights in the next few weeks. Models such as iPhone 5 and HTC One could feel some pain.

We will publish a full report to clients on Friday 15th March, 2013.

Global smartphone shipments increased by 38% annually in Q4 2012. This report, available to the clients of our Country Handset Share Tracker service, tracks the world's 11 leading smartphone vendors' shipments and marketshare across 15 major countries worldwide in Q1-Q4 2012. The 15 countries tracked account for 80% of total global smartphone volumes. Countries covered are: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, UK, and the United States. This report is a valuable tool for any mobile stakeholder that wants to track smartphone vendors' operational performances at a granular country level.

According to our Country Share Tracker (CST) service, smartphone shipments surged +64% annually in China during the fourth quarter of 2012. Android and Android forks together accounted for a record volume of all smartphones shipped in China last year. Apple iOS followed in second place. More analysis can be downloaded by clients here.

Samsung, the leading handset provider based in South Korea, recently announced that sales of its Galaxy S series have exceeded 100 million units since the launch of original Galaxy S around two years and seven months ago.

The original Galaxy S sold 10 million units within its first seven months, eventually topping 24 million sales, while the Galaxy S2 topped 10 million within just five months - eventually reaching 40 million units sold. Samsung’s Galaxy S3 sold 20 million units in 100 days and sales have already exceeded 40 million.

Clients of Strategy Analytics Handset Country Share Tracker (HCST) service can access detailed data on global shipments of the leading smartphone models in this report: Global Smartphone Shipments by Family / Model: Q3 2012.

According to our Country Share Tracker (CST) service, China smartphone shipments increased +61% YoY in Q3 2012, surging way ahead of the United States and confirming its position as the world's largest country by volume. Samsung stayed top, but Lenovo is second and closing the gap. Huawei, ZTE and Coolpad continued to jostle for the remaining top-five slots. Almost all the "big 10" smartphone brands in China now use Android, putting pressure on Microkia and Apple iPhone. More analysis and data can be downloaded by clients in this published report.

Our Wireless Device Strategies (WDS) service is hosting a public webinar on China, at 100pm New York-time on Wednesday 17th October, 2012. Please register here.

China is the world's largest handset and smartphone market by volume, as well as the second-largest market by value. Players in the mobile space cannot afford to ignore China, a market with plenty of opportunities and challenges ahead. This webinar will focus on why we believe China is such an important handset market, who is winning and who is losing, where the rising opportunities are, as well as implications on how other developing and developed markets will follow China's footsteps. The agenda for the webinar is as follows.

• Introduction
• Why is China so Important Today?
• Who is Leading in China: Megavendors vs. Local Players?
• Operators' Rising Role in China's 3G Handset Market (e.g. subsidies)
• How Big is the TD-LTE Opportunity?
• Smartphone OS Wars: Android Forks
• Conclusions & Recommendations

Event Information:

Topic : China : The World's Largest Mobile Market

Date : 17th, October, 2012

Time : 1pm EDT / 10am PDT /6pm BST / 7pm CET / 12am (18/10/12) JST

Presenters : Linda Sui - Analyst. Wireless Device Strategies

                  Alexander Spektor - Associate Director, Global Wireless Practice

Click here to REGISTER for this event

According to Strategy Analytics’ Country Share Tracker (CST) service, 15 countries represented three-quarters of global smartphone shipments in Q2 2012: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Spain, UK, and USA. During the quarter, Samsung was the number one smartphone vendor in 13 of these countries. Meanwhile, Apple captured the top spot in the United States, desipite early anticipation of the recently released iPhone 5. Indeed, Samsung and Apple have separated themselves from the rest of the pack, as the ony two smartphone vendors with double-digit marketshare worldiwde. More smartphone vendor shipments to 15 key countries worldwide in Q2 2012 can be viewed by clients here.