We believe that most handset-market estimates are missing the large number of unlicensed handsets produced in China. These “shanzhai” phones are produced by many small suppliers, some even operating out of apartments. This market is largely supplied by MediaTek, which provides complete handset chip sets and reference designs to the shanzhai vendors."
Analyst Finds 150 Million 'Missing' Handsets.
"The Linley Group released a report last night in which it claims that about 150 million handsets are missing from the official calculations of phones sold in 2008. The research firm notes that while some 1.2 billion cell phones shipped last year, 1.43 billion cellular baseband chips shipped, too, almost all destined for handsets. After accounting for waste and non-handset devices such as modems, analyst Bob Linley Gwennap guesses that 1.36 billion handsets were actually sold, while the missing chips were put into some 150 million unlicensed phones produced in China. From the report:
