Lenovo mainland share drops
China's largest PC maker Lenovo Group saw its mainland market share drop five percentage points to 31.3% in the first quarter of 2006, according to International Data Corp (IDC) figures. Domestic manufacturer Founder Group retained its number two spot with 12.7% while Dell and Hewlett-Packard took third and fourth place with 9.3% and 7.7% respectively.
Homegrown 3G attracts investors
TD-SCDMA pioneer Datang Mobile sold US$25 million in convertible bonds to a consortium of three foreign private equity investors. It is the second foray into private equity fund-raising by the developer of China's untested homegrown 3G technology, but the first to attract pure financial investors. The Beijing-based company plans to raise up to US$100 million in private equity by the end of this year.
Legal Windows software on the rise
Almost half of all PCs sold in China during the first quarter of 2006 were equipped with legal copies of Microsoft Windows, compared to just 25% in the final quarter of 2005. The increase follows a government directive to domestic manufacturers to pre-install the operating system on units sold in China. It is hoped that this will help crack down on intellectual property theft.
Berlin rebuffs maglev demands
There was a stall in negotiations between China and Germany over a proposed US$4.3 billion magnetic levitation train link between Shanghai and Hangzhou. The German transport minister rejected a request for funding and intellectual property transfer at a meeting with the head of China's National Maglev Transportation Technology Research Center.
China Mobile buys Phoenix stake
Telecom operator China Mobile bought a 19.9% stake in Phoenix Satellite Television for an undisclosed sum from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. News Corp has a 38% stake in Hong Kong-based Phoenix, China's most successful television broadcaster. China Mobile said the tie-up would enhance the services it could offer across its 3G platform. However, the issuing of 3G licenses is expected to be delayed well into 2006 or even 2007.