TAIPEI: Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC Corp and China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile carrier based on market value, plan to work jointly to develop new products and technology for the mainland's third generation mobile network, the companies said yesterday.

A memorandum of understanding, signed in Taiwan yesterday, marked the launch of the joint venture.

"Together, we look forward to expanding the TD-SCDMA industry chain and spurring development of the cross-Straits telecommunications sector. We look for this partnership to become a model of cooperation," China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou said in a statement.

TD-SCDMA, which is the short-form for time-division synchronous code division multiple access, is the first domestically developed international technology standard used in the mainland's telecommunications industry.

HTC Corp is the leading manufacturer of mobile phones, using Google's Android and Microsoft Corp's Windows operating systems. HTC will embrace the TD-SCDMA standard in furthering its product development.

"Going forward, HTC will actively develop intelligent advanced wireless broadband products based on the TD-SCDMA standard, and will work closely with China Mobile to design and make products tailored to the needs of the mainland market," said HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou.

HTC said they will also conduct research into mainland consumer trends as part of product development.

China Mobile had 493 million subscribers at the end of July. That's more subscribers than the combined populations of the US and Japan.

China Mobile plans to expand into the smart-phone market as the market matures and growth in subscriber numbers slows. Shipments of smartphones, or mobile phones that enable users to make voice calls, check e-mail and browse the Internet, are forecast to exceed voice handsets by 2014, RBC Capital Markets Corp said in a report.

China Mobile, which last week posted its first decline in profit since 1999, said the company will co-operate with vendors, including Dell Inc and HTC to develop handsets that use its own operating system.

China Mobile added 15.96 million users in the three months ended June 30, compared with 22.5 million a year earlier.

Agencies

(HK Edition 08/25/2009 page2)