BEIJING—China’s top computer manufacturer Legend Holdings and Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronics Company (Xoceco) agreed on 27 February to set up a joint venture to produce mobile handsets with chipset technology to be supplied by Texas Instruments. Legend is investing 90 million yuan (US$10.87 million) for a 60-percent stake in the venture, with the remainder subscribed by Xoceco.
The venture, to be based in Xiamen in southern China’s Fujian province, plans a yearly output of between 500,000 and 1 million GSM handsets. Xoxeco sold 260,000 handsets of its own brand last year and supplied 250,000 on an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) basis to other manufacturers.
Legend President Yang Yuanqing is convinced the market potential for handsets is even bigger than that for personal computers. China had 150 million mobile-phone subscribers at the end of January, and market growth is expected to surpass 30 percent during the next three years.
Legend is the number-one PC vendor in China with a 30-percent market share.
