2006 Annual Report on China's Musical Mobile

Findings and Recommendations Analysys' Findings

Developing environment

Technology progress of semiconductor has made it possible to integrate multiple functions. Some pocket device sold as single item gradually integrate into mobile phone. One typical example is digital camera and MP3 walkman found on mobile, which enable users reducing overlapping investment while having diversified funnctions.

Musical mobile has attracted numerous customers since 2005, which consists of MP3 mobile that supports MP3 music and MP4 mobile which can play video/audio files. Musical mobile has become the key product for vendors to popularize.

Advancement of IC technology has made it possible to research and develop musical mobile. Advanced SOC design concept for reducing design cycles, 65nm, as well as the process technology of less wire width, advanced packaging technologies and concept such as BGA, CSP and MCP all provise powerful support for the technology progress, realization of functions and improvement of performance of musical mobile.

3G will be lauched soon. The notable improvement of bandwidth will provide powerful support of wireless music download business for musical mobile.

Market situation and trend

The market share of musical mobile is increasing remarkably. 10.26 million musical mobiles were sold in 2005, accounting for 13% of total sales of mobile in 2005. It will maintain rapid development and possess more that 40% of the mobile market.

Smartness is an important developing direction of musical mobile.

Sound quality, easiness, battery duration, portability, test of sense, download speed and storage are crucial evaluation standards.

In order to meet the needs of long standby time, bulk storage, high sound quality, quick response and clear display, low power chips and high capacity battery have become the developing direction of musical mobile.

The music develops from initial verse to chord, and finally to musical mobile, and musical mobile progress from simply playing to synchronization of lyric and music now.

Vendor competition Structure

Renowned overseas brands are still the preference of customers to purchase musical mobile. Customers prefer Nokia most and 39.5% of them take Nokia as their first choice. Followed are SonyEricsson, Samsung and Motorola, accounting for 20.0%, 16.1% and 14.6% respectively.

Overseas brands stress personalized musical mobile. Nokia musical mobile have excellent performance in the integration of plenty of other functions. Sony provides SonyEricsson mobile with capacious developing room in virtue of its great advantage in musical electronic products. Motorola cooperate with Apple and may learn from some of the successful experience of IPOD. ultra slim The design of ultra slim appearance is always a feature of Samsung musical mobile.

Domestic mobile manufacturers also begin to attach importance to innovation, as well as software and hardware configuration such as speaker, sound quality and wireless download service. Among them Dopod, Lenovo and Amoi have got excellent performance.

Means and channels of sale

Independent mobile stores take up the lion’s share of 25.9% of the market. Department store or super market and hypermarket of home appliances win 22.4% and 12.3%. Chain stores of home appliances and mobile take up 19.7% and 11.2% while business halls of operators accounting for 7.2%.

Traditional channels of mobile also apply to musical mobile and are the main channels for musical mobile now. Domestic market channels can be classified into six groups of national, provincial or regional exclusive distributors, FD distributor, direct supplier and operator, accounting for 26.8%, 24.2%, 15.1%, 6.6%, 11.5% and 15.8% respectively.

The proportion of customization by operators will grow notably, and musical mobile will get broader application.Much of the music need to be downloaded through WAP or WWW network. Flow media may become a new growing point of business for operators. As a result, the proportion of customization by operators will increase more distinctly than ordinary mobile and receive more attention.

TV home shopping and Internet sale play an increasingly important role and can avoid distortion of information transferred through multiple levels and increase of channel expense by virtue of their simpler channel level. Furthermore, TV home shopping has broader coverage and more detailed introduction making it easier for users to know and accept the products. It will play an even greater role in the future. Also Internet sale is convenient and has elaborate and professional presentation of goods. It saves a lot of time for the users with rapid delivery and will have greater weight in the future.

Characteristics of users

Young people aged between 21 and 25 are the main users of musical mobile, accounting for 41.04% of the total. Consumers aged between 26 and 30 come second accounting for 29.72%. With the increase of age, consumer’s buying psychology tends to be reasonable and there are less users of musical mobile.

Most users of musical mobile are people with a middle or low monthly income between 1,000 and 3,999 Yuan. Among them 28.8% are people with monthly income between 2,000 and 2,999 Yuan, 22.73% between 1,000 and 1,999 Yuan, and 15.2% between 3,000 and 3,999 Yuan.

Various media of advertisement are the main channels for customers to get information on musical mobile, among them Web sites accounting for 36.6%, TV and broadcasting 24.4%, newspaper and magazine 18.3%, and vendor’s promotion advertisement 12.2%.

Most users tend to buy musical mobile fewer than 4,000 Yuan, among them 47.1% having their budget between 1,000 and 1,999 Yuan and 27.1% between 2,000 and 2,999 Yuan.

45.45% of the users under 16 buy musical mobile under the influence of their schoolmates. Users above 16 are influenced by their friends. And customers are increasing influenced by their husband, wife or lover with the increase of age.

65% of the customers choose mobile with its memory above 64M, which is the mainstream of the whole market. Among them 31% prefer memory between 65M and 128M, 22% between 33M and 64M, 21% between 129M and 256M, and also 13% choose memory above 256M.

Analysys' Recommendations

Adopt advanced chip technology

Adopt advanced design concept of semiconductor and develop toward single chip solution. User needs are different. Single-chip functional devices can better satisfy the diversified needs of users.

Adopt advanced semiconductor process tehcnology, such as 65nm and 45nm.

Adopt advanced BGA, CSP, MCP and SIP packaging technologies.

Develop personalized musical mobile

Show advantange of performance. Develop musical mobile of high sound quality and high capacity.

Show advantange of appearance design. Develop musical mobile of unique look, such as ultra slimness and smoothy line.

Show advantange of smartness. Develop smart phone.

Show advantange of accessories and interface design. Develop musical mobile with extension card and in support of multiple interfaces.

Focus on user needs in product positioning

According to Analysys’ investigation, most cusomers tend to buy musical mobile less than 4,000 Yuan, among them 47.1% having their budget between 1,000 and 1,999 Yuan and 27.1% between 2,000 and 2,999 Yuan. Vendors should determine the cost, price and target market in products development.

Young people aged between 21 and 25 are the main users of musical mobile, accounting for 41.04%. Consumers aged between 26 and 30 come second with the share of 29.72%. Vendors should pay more attention to the preference of these customers.

65% of the customers choose mobile with its memory above 64M, which is the mainstream of the whole market. With the advancement of storage technology, high capacity has become the trend of development.

Improve pre-sale and after-sale services while developing channels and stores

Improve pre-sale and after-sale services while developing channels and stores, which are even more important to musical mobile than to ordinary mobile.It needs the salesman to have better quality and good knowledge of the product in order to provide pre-sale experience and detailed introduction of its functions and performance.

In order to promote the development of musical mobile, brand vendors also invest in music content, or play a CP role to provide music content for mobile, like Nokia; or work with CP to popularize mobile music, like Motorola.