Beijing-based Legend Group will unveil the first domestically developed mobile phone enabling multimedia messaging service in a bid to tap the MMS phone market, which is now cornered by overseas phone makers, Friday's Beijing Business Today reported.
The report said the G818 model would be out in a few days but did not give an exact date.
The report also said that MMS phones are expected to dominate new phone models this year as the main trend in China's cell phone market.
China Mobile Telecommunications Corp. launched multimedia messaging service late last year and has received a warm market response.
Compared with phones that support only text-messaging service, MMS phones enable users to send and receive messages containing Flash and music attachments.
The price of the G818 phone was not announced, but market analysts expect it to be higher than regular phones, citing prices of currently available MMS models.
Most of the MMS phones currently available in China, all foreign brands, cost more than 4,000 yuan (US$484), compared with 1,500 yuan for regular phones.
Citing the high prices as a key factor curbing the MMS phones market, analysts are bullish about the new phones in light of the huge text-messaging market here.
(People?s Daily April 19, 2003)
