Fishing for chips

Chinese smartphone makers realize processor supplies are key to achieving global supremacy

In the $429 billion global smartphone market, dominance in the domestic and Indian segments may encourage Chinese handset makers to dream of ejecting Apple and Samsung from the pinnacle, but the reality is far removed.

Chinese vendors still have several loose ends to tie up, none starker than their poor control over key sections of the supply chain, particularly chips, or processors, the engines that drive the handset hardware -the brain, if you will.