Motorola
has discovered that if you want Chinese consumers to buy your products,
it helps to have some stores. Or rather, it helps to have your own
branded shops if you want to stand out in China's crowded mobile phone
marketplace.
In the analyst conference call following yesterday's financial results, the US electronics giant was bullish about its improving market share in China, which it puts at 23%.
Most of the improvement, not surprisingly, gets attributed to better products, particularly the Ming (pictured here) which has Chinese handwriting recognition software.
But Ron Garriques, executive VP of Motorola's mobile devices business, also said the growing number of Motorola stores had boosted its share. He said:
Clearly, the lion's share of our growth so far, I believe, has been in improved portfolio... Having said that, we are also seeing the benefits of the 50-plus stores that we've opened up in China to go push our product. We are still not probably getting the full effect, given the size of the Chinese market and the fact that it's only 50 stores so far."
Motorola was a pioneer in China and for a long time it led the market. However, it started to feel the heat a few years back and its market share began to fall. Now, it seems the company's China strategy may be on the mend. More on Motorola in this earlier EngagingChina story.
Hat-tip to SeekingAlpha for the call transcript. I remember when these analyst conference calls were jealously protected from the prying ears of journalists and private investors. Now, it seems, anyone can read what gets said -- and a good thing too.
