Whitebox handsets are getting out and loud; they will take up 13% of the handset market globally and more so almost 50% of the market in China this year, as we have reported in a previous article.
And just when you think you know where it is going, there’s another bomb on the ticking clock: Android whitebox handsets! Yes, the massive black market of handsets are going posh: instead of the old and clunking MTK 25 or MTK 26 operating systems that most of the whitebox handsets are equipped with, they’re adopting the new baby we all love: Android.
In the city of Shenzhen, what they call the biggest “city of whitebox handsets”, insiders from one of the whitebox workshops disclosed:
Our own Android handsets have been put into trial production, and they will be sent to the market in batchs.
And they’re not alone! Several other legitimate handset factories are also working on their Android handsets, with supreme functions such as Push-Mail they never thought they could get on their own products; thanks to the cute little robot!
Why Android? You may ask.
As a matter of fact, the whitebox handset workshops have been looking at extending their products to a more advanced and smarter spectrum. Apart from the fact that Android is one of the best mobile OS out there, I personally love Android over almost any of the other mobile OS, it free! And it’s an open platform just like MTK, where the whitebox factories can do whatever they want to adjust to their own hardware (ironically this reminds me China Mobile and their OPhone…).
And to cut to the core, as the profit of whitebox handset are getting slimmer and slimmer, where reporters have said that it could go as little as 10 CNY per handset profit, smarter handsets such as an Android enabled whitebox handset might bring around 200 CNY profit per handset. Now you tell me why they’re rushing for it.
Anyhow, what I’m saying is that we all now that smart phones are getting bigger share in the handset market, and whitebox handsets are reproducing like a brood of healthy cockroaches. Now you put the cute green little man into the rustling Whitebox, well, I smell firework in the air.
References from Sohu IT.
Recent Comments