By Star Chang, posted Dec 9, 2011 at 3:25 PM, 917 views,

USD $50 Android Smartphones Expects to Hit China Market

Spreadtrum Communications, a Chinese semiconductor company, has announced two low-cost chipsets which allow Chinese manufacturers to bring down the cost of entry smartphones. The new SC8805G and SC6810 chipsets have combined 40nm baseband platforms and highly integrated systems, which deliver a low-cost solution in a new price segment that will make smartphone devices more accessible to consumers in China. The platforms will lower the total phone cost to US$40-50, well below currently available smartphones and easily within reach of sub-$100 retail prices …

The new chipsets have incorporated an ARM-9 600MHz processor, which can support only the older Android 2.2 OS. It allows camera support up to 5 megapixel, MPEG4 decoder and encoder, as well as connectivity and broadcast functions including Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM and mobile TV. It comes with integrated power management too. The SC8805G targets China’s growing demand for low-cost smartphones, supporting China Mobile TD-SCDMA standard. While the SC6810 is designed for emerging markets, where 3G rollouts are still in development and EDGE/WiFi provides consumers interested in a smartphone experience with the best coverage available.

The two chipsets have been designed into models by more than a dozen handset manufacturers, with the first models expected to ship this month. Designs with Spreadtrum’s SC8805G have passed China Mobile’s qualification testing, paving the way for product launch. China Mobile estimates that next year more than 30 million TD-SCDMA smart phones will be sold to consumers, most in the low-cost segment. We believe the new development should increase the rate of 3G adoption in China, which has so far been quite slow compare to worldwide. To take note, these cheapest made-for-China 3G smartphones will not support other 3G network standard.

Source: SPREADTRUM (in Chinese), cellular-news