Cell phone industry has high growth rate, raising its share on the global mobile phone market. During 2007, 600 million mobile phones were made in China which accounted for over 50% of the global production. ^{[citation needed]} 

History

• n 1995, wireless telephone communication in the modern sense started by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of China, using GSM technology. A nation-wide network was completed in the following year.^[1]
• In 2000, the fixed telephone company (China Telecom) and two cell phone telephone companies (China Mobile and China Unicom) were spun off from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
• In 2002, the fixed telephone company was split into two: China Netcom for North China and China Telecom for South China
• Until 2008, China's cell phone service was provided by the three companies:
  • GSM service from China Mobile
  • GSM and CDMA service (begun in 2002) from China Unicom
  • PHS service from the two fixed phone companies: China Netcom and China Telecom
• In 2008, another reorganization of the telecommunications industry was made a year before the 3G service was granted.

Domestics sales

The domestic sales of cell phone made a breakthrough of 100 million in China in 2006.
In 2007, the domestic sales of cell phone in china were 190 million, increased by 74% as compared with 2007. The impetus mainly came from the rapid growth of new mobile phone users and old customers' upgrading demands. Of 190 million cell phones, 140 million were made through formal channels, while the rest were made through informal channels such as smuggling, counterfeiting and renovating.

 Sales volume

For year of 2007, sales volume had reached about 23 billion USD, increased by 17% as compared with 2006. The drop of cell phones' average price made the increment of sales volume lower than the increment of sales because mobile communication company vigorously promoted the sales of cell phones binding to their service which have lower price.

 Export volume

The export volume of China's cell phones added up to a record high of 385 million in 2006, increased by 69.3% as compared with 2005. In 2007, this figure reached 483 million, increased by 125.45% as compared with 2006. As far as 2006, the export volume had reached 31.214 billion USD, increased by 52.47% as compared with 2005. The export volume of 2007 was 35.6 billion dollars, increased by 114.01% as compared with 2006.

Development trend

The latest 2–3 years' development trend (2005–2008) has showed that the mainland market is developing in two directions, one of which is the extremely low price cell phones in emerging rural market; the other is multimedia cell phones with diverse functions such as mobile television, MP3 and GPS.

Pricing

China's cell phone market is dominated by products with price under 2000 RMB yuan (about 290 dollars). Products at this price have accounted for 60% of the whole cell phone market, competing with China's local brands, informal cell phones and international brands