Momentum in China with NovaThor platform

China is already the world’s largest country, with a population of 1.3 billion so it is not surprising that China is now at the forefront of the worldwide mobile computing boom. And it is estimated that 988 million people are mobile phone subscribers in China.

Smartphone adoption in China has been rapidly growing over the past year, with most of that growth driven by low-cost Android handsets. And with smartphone devices increasing in number and mobile broadband becoming more accessible, it will only spike higher.

Just this year, research firm Strategy Analytics showed that China surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest smartphone market by volume. And China-based vendors are helping to lead that growth. The increased market occupation by China-based vendors was mainly due to selling of their entry- to mid-level 3G smartphone models through contract-bundled sales by China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom (source: China-based Sino Market Research; May 2012).

ST-Ericsson is now enabling some of the amazing devices hitting the market in China. Today, Shanda, a leading interactive entertainment media provider, and ST-Ericsson teamed up to create Shanda’s first smartphone. The Shanda Bambook smartphone is powered by the ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500, a high performance application processor with integrated modem solution, and is the first of several smartphones planned by Shanda to use the ST-Ericsson NovaThor platform.

And just last month, we announced that the new Coolpad CP7728 - the latest smartphone launched by China Unicom and Yulong Telecommunication – is powered by the NovaThor U8500 ModAp platform. With Coolpad being the second largest brand in terms of market share in China with 11.17% (source: Sino Market Research; May 2012), this was a huge win for our company.

We are also pleased to share that Motorola selected the NovaThor U8500 ModAp platform for its newest mid-range smartphone: the Motorola MOTO XT760. And ST-Ericsson provides more than just modems and application processors. In addition to the NovaThor U8500, the Motorola Moto XT760 leverages the ST-Ericsson CG2900 and CW1200 connectivity solutions. The XT760 also offers full HDMI and analog TV out for portable applications supported by the ST-Ericsson AV8100. Watch for the Motorola MOTO XT760 to hit shelves soon!

And with phones from HTC (Sensation z270t) and Sony Mobile Communications (Xperia P, Xperia U and Xperia sola) available in China now and powered by ST-Ericsson, China consumers have more ways than ever to experience what ST-Ericsson has to offer. By delivering complete system solutions in the form of highly competitive integrated ModAp platforms, connectivity solutions and standalone modems, ST-Ericsson is enabling handset manufacturers to produce powerful smartphones while offering leading features in compact designs.

In other words, ST-Ericsson delivers exactly what the China smartphone customer needs!