Motorola Inc will strengthen its performance in the domestic market by scaling up investment, and research and development (R&D), Chairman and CEO Ed Zander said yesterday.

"China is an incredible market and we will continue to invest in R&D and factories in China," he told reporters yesterday in Beijing.

"We have the best products and the next step is to roll out marketing and selling," he said.

"We expect high growth in the Asia Pacific region and especially in the Chinese market."

As the world's No 2 mobile phone maker, Motorola is in constant competition with other large firms such as Nokia and Samsung.

Current strategy calls for improving its business performance in emerging markets such as China and India.

Motorola announced early this month an enhancement of its management team, including appointing Kao Ruey-bin, corporate vice-president and general manager of Motorola Networks Business, as president of Motorola (China) Electronics Ltd.

Betting on the success of China's upcoming third generation (3G) wireless communications platform, which is likely to be rolled out later this year, Motorola yesterday announced the establishment of a 3G R&D centre in Beijing.

Including this new centre, Motorola will have invested more than US$450 million in China in 16 research and development centres.

The firm said the centre will concentrate on the development of global 3G network solutions and provide direct support for customers in China, once 3G is launched here.

"With this centre, we are offering our customers in China quicker deployment of solutions and more direct access to Motorola's global 3G expertise," said Simon Leung, regional president of Motorola Asia Pacific.

Zander yesterday declined to comment on a recent rumour that Motorola is to co-operate with Siemens in the mobile handset business.

He believes there will be a lot of convergence and acquisitions within the industry in the future.

Motorola will roll out more new mobile phone models to meet market demand, particularly low-priced handsets in China to help recapture its leading position in the domestic market.

According to Michael Tatelman, general manager of Motorola Mobile Devices (North Asia), the firm will team up with the GSM Association and other telecoms operators to launch the low-priced handset programme to expand business.

Motorola last week reported record sales of US$8.16 billion in the first quarter of 2005, an increase of 10 per cent from sales of US$7.44 billion in the first quarter of 2004.

Motorola's Mobile Devices Segment sales in the first quarter of 2005 were US$4.4 billion, up 6 per cent compared with the year-ago quarter.

The company shipped 28.7 million mobile devices during the first quarter - an increase of 13 per cent compared to the same period in 2004.

Source:China Daily