China’s Cell Phone Market Ready to Explode
But companies confront users’ preference for no-frills service
By Martin Fackler/AP
At first glance, Chen Xiaomei seems like the sort of customer wireless companies would dream about: The 23-year-old department store clerk is so fond of cell phones, she just bought a new one — her second in two years.
But in making her purchase at a Shanghai shopping mall, Chen didn’t even glance at the more expensive handsets offering Internet access and e-mail. “I don’t want all that,” she said. “I just want to talk to my friends.”
She walked out with a simple model costing $100.
“Low end subscribers” in industry parlance, Chen and others like her are helping keep the shine off a wireless market that already rivals that of the United States in size and could soon dwarf it.
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