The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday that Motorola, the Fortune 100 cell-phone maker that is losing both market share and executives to rivals such as Apple Inc., had set a target of holding 10 percent of worldwide market share.

　As the mobile phone maker focuses on the R&D of high-end smartphones, it will outsource all of its basic models. The company has planned to use Mediatek's chips in all of its phones priced under US$150. Motorola's move to replace Texas Instruments, which had retreated from the cell-phone chip market, with Mediatek could bring the Taiwanese company the order of at least 40 million products in a year, the newspaper reported.

　Mediatek said in a statement yesterday that while entering the supply chain for the top tier cell-phone makers has been its long-term goal, the company has not received orders from Motorola.

　Mediatek, famous as a producer of chips powering the majority of “Shanzhai phones,” or Chinese knockoff cell phones, has been courting cooperation with the top five global brands without much prevail. The Motorola deal could have added momentum to Mediatek's performance in 2G and even 3G cell phone chips.

　Motorola has seen its market share eroded from the high of 20 percent two years ago, thanks to its widely popular ultra-thin RZAR V3, to 5.5 percent in the second quarter of 2009 due to the lack of an attention-gripping model and excess stockpile. It is recurrently the fourth biggest cell-phone maker in terms of market share.

　Local mobile phone experts suggested that Motorola would require contractors to calculate payment upon delivery to reduce stockpile risk, the Economic Daily News said.

　The newspaper also quoted local experts as saying that the possible deal with Motorola

Source: China Post