Ericsson (China) Co., Ltd. and Panda Electronic Group, famous producers of electronic devices in China, will soon jointly promote a top-quality, low-cost mobile phone in the Chinese market.

According to the information released by the Ericsson Beijing office today, the strategy behind the 999 yuan (about 120 US dollars) phone is to get an even bigger slice of the Chinese market for the world's leading mobile phone makers. The new product, Panda GM518, based on the Ericsson technology, attracted many local consumers when it debuted last week in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province. Ericsson and Panda are reportedly discussing the timetable of the new product's appearance market-wide.

Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola mobile phones still dominate the Chinese market, with prices ranging from 1,500 yuan (180 US dollars) to 3,000 yuan (360 US dollars). However, the mobile phones made by Chinese companies, such as TCL, Konka, Panda, Kejian, Bird, have had some impact, with high quality and considerably low price, even though they are latecomers on the domestic scene.

Officials with Ministry of Information Industry (MII) recently announced that the government will cut mobile phone fees. Latest statistics from MII show that China has more than 43 million mobile phone users, and the figure is likely to hit 200 million by 2010.