Cheap mobile phones that closely resemble high-end globally-recognised
devices are slowly fading out from markets across China, and are being
replaced by brands looking to break into the budget phone market.
In
south China's Shenzhen city, known as the "birthplace of counterfeit
phones", shops with "for rent" signs can be seen everywhere, the China
Daily reported Monday.
Although the city has long been known as
one of the country's top sellers of electronic products, government data
indicates that more than 3,500 shops, most of which were mobile phone
dealers, have closed and retreated from the market.
This year's
Canton Fair, the country's largest small commodities expo held in
Guangzhou, featured a small number of counterfeit phones, an
"unthinkable occurrence in previous years".
Industry experts said
manufacturers of counterfeit phone do not have the technological
know-how to compete with global brands like Apple and Samsung.
However,
domestic brands have made breakthroughs that have allowed them to offer
inexpensive smartphones, thus cutting into the counterfeit phone
market.
Among the 10 biggest phone manufacturers in China last
year, domestic brands ZTE, Huawei and TCL were ranked third, fifth and
ninth respectively, in terms of smartphone sales.
Domestic smartphones cost less than 1,000 yuan ($160).
Tang
Ruijin, director of the Shenzhen Federation of Mobile Communication,
said counterfeit manufacturers have retreated to underdeveloped overseas
markets like southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.
At this
year's Mobile World Congress, Huawei unveiled a quad-core mobile phone
processor. Huawei is one of few companies that develops its own computer
chips, while many foreign brands still use Intel chips.