China plans to launch its own homegrown brand of mobile phones either in late 2013 or early 2014.
In a press conference on Dec. 27, the China Information Office announced that BeiDou mobile phones will be the first Chinese mobile phone brand that will be marketed internationally. The ambitious plan is backed by several years of progress in developing and manufacturing navigation chips. BeiDou navigation chips are currently used in automobiles and in some brands of mobile phones.
The launching of the BeiDou mobile phone brand was confirmed by Ran Chengqi, spokesperson for BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), who is also the current management office director of China Satellite Navigation system.
The spokesperson emphasized the need to further improve the system and its performance to promote the industrialization of the navigation satellite system. China also has to strengthen the ground-based augmentation system which, in turn, would improve the positioning accuracy of the system. The research, development and manufacturing output for the core chips and the corresponding software also need to be improved.
BeiDou's coverage is currently limited to China and some parts of the Asia Pacific region. Since the Chinese government is planning to market BeiDou phones globally, it plans to initiate pilot projects abroad to support the rapid industrialization of BeiDou.
In early 2013, the Chinese State Council issued two guideline documents that promote the domestic application of BeiDou’s technology. The government also provides support for the medium and long-term development of the navigation satellite system.
"The future is very bright for the industrialization of the BeiDou system. My optimistic expectation is that by 2015, BeiDou will take up 30 per cent of the global navigation market, and by 2020 this share will increase,” Ran Chengqi said.