According to an official announcement at a press conference held by the State Council’s Information Office on Friday 27 December, China is likely to launch its homegrown BeiDou mobile phones at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

Over the years, China has made significant progress in the development of navigation chips. At present, homegrown Chinese BeiDou chips can be used in automobiles as well as mobile phones. “Around the end of this year or the beginning of the next, homegrown mobile phones carrying BeiDou navigation chips will probably be in use,” according to Ran Chengqi, spokesman for BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and Management Office Director of China Satellite Navigation System, who briefed the media on the progress of industrialization of the BeiDou system.

Ran pointed out at the conference that to promote the industrialization of the navigation satellite system, China needs to further improve the system and its performance, including strengthening the ground-base augmentation system in order to improve the accuracy of positioning. Research and production of core chips and basic software also need to be stepped up, especially in terms of their price/performance ratio.

The BeiDou system currently covers China and its surrounding area in the Asia Pacific region, and China is planning to advance its international credentials through pilot projects and cross-border cooperation.

The Chinese government will also introduce corresponding industrial policies to support the industrialization of BeiDou. This year, the Chinese State Council has already issued two guideline documents to promote domestic information application and support the medium and long term development of the navigation satellite system. A new policy targeting the BeiDou industry is underway, according to Ran.

“The future is very bright for the industrialization of the BeiDou system,” remarked Ran. “My optimistic expectation is that by 2015 BeiDou will take up 30 percent of the global navigation market, and by 2020 this share will increase.”

On December 27 BDS celebrated the first anniversary of its full operational regional service.