By Inky
All is not well with the march of China’s ZTE in its grail to achieve a move from fourth to a podium place as global handset producer. Currently the fifth-largest manufacturer handset and fifth in the telecoms equipment league, ZTE has just posted its third consecutive fall in quarterly profit. This is due to less than sparkling telecoms spending and downward drifts in foreign exchange rates. The latest exchange rate of the US$/Chinese Yuan at the time of going to press was $1 = Y6.3070.

As well as its local Shenzen neighbour, Huawei, ZTE has moved into consumer electronics to keep pace with the burgeoning convergent market as the telecoms spend has slowed. Both vendors are now offering devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs.

Back in Q4 2011, ZTE's net profit slithered to Y991mn (US$157mn), down 48% percent from Y1.89bn a year earlier. This was seriously under the Y2.16bn prediction.

Adding to the woes, Nokia's push in China will be an important test for the Windows Phone, which has so far had limited success in Europe and the United States. The world's largest mobile maker by volume is reliant on Windows after dumping its own software platforms last year.

Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop introduced two models based on the Lumia 610 and Lumia 800 smartphones. The Lumia 800C will be sold without a carrier contract for Y3,599 (US$573) from April. Pricing for the cheaper 610C model, to launch in China in the second quarter, will be announced later.

Both models will use the CDMA technology of China Telecom, the nation's third-largest carrier. Nokia plans to bring all four Windows Phone models to the Chinese market in the second quarter and also adopt China Unicom's wireless technology. Shares in Nokia rose 3% to €4.116 after an upward shift in its Swedbank rating. From 2010 to 2011, Nokia saw its share of the Chinese market shrinking to 30% percent from 70%.

Both ZTE and Huawei are expected to benefit after investing around Y350bn  (US$53bn) this year upgrading and expanding their 3G technology, as together they own half the core infrastructure telecoms equipment market in China.

ZTE sells equipment in more than 140 countries and derives around half its sales overseas, making its yuan-denominated earnings vulnerable to the weakening of the euro and other currencies such as the Brazilian real.

It will take more than an army of Terracotta Warriors to halt the slide.

Slim chance

And who says there’s no money in telecoms these straitened days? Carlos Slim, the telecommunications tycoon who controls Mexico’s America Movil SAB, is the richest person on Earth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 20 wealthiest individuals.

The 72-year-old’s net worth fell US$478.4 million in a day to $68.5 billion as of the close of markets on March 2, as U.S. moguls Bill Gates and Warren Buffett placed second and third on the list compiled by Bloomberg News. Brazil’s Eike Batista, who ranks 10th, still covets the top spot after vowing a year ago that he’d become the world’s wealthiest man by 2015.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes. Each net worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York.

Down, but not out
Gates, 56, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, Washington, is worth $62.4 billion, down US$102.1 million on March 2 and up 11 percent year to date.
The fortune of Buffett, 81, chairman of Omaha, Nebraska- based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., declined US$336.9 million to US$43.8 billion on March 2 and is up 2.4 percent in 2012. Almost all of Buffett’s wealth is held in Berkshire Hathaway, the publicly traded holding company he has run since 1965.  The combined net worth of the 20 richest people is US$676.8 billion. Nine are Americans, including three from the family of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Keep Slim happy and keep paying your bills folks as the credit control folks may not all be angels.

Moving experience
This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) seemed to attract exhibitors from outside the traditional mobile arena – Google and eBay were examples but at least Krispy Kreme donuts were absent, at least for the moment. With the global awareness of M2M increasing and the vendor interest in telematics climbing to the fore, it was no surprise to see automotive representations on display in Barcelona. One on particular was BMW with its ConnectedDrive 730i model on display. It has been subsequently announced that from summer this year all new BMW cars in Germany will be fitted with M2M SIMs supplied by Vodafone Germany. The Vodafone SIM will provide customers with access to in-car services such as the BMW Online Services, a concierge service for BMW drivers and an emergency call function. The five-year agreement between Vodafone Germany and the BMW Group involves fitting SIM cards within the vehicles at the assembly plant. The service being provided by Vodafone is based on M2M technology, which allows different devices to communicate with each other. The European Union is planning the introduction of ‘eCall’, the automatic vehicle emergency call system which will become mandatory in new vehicles and from 2015 onwards, all new cars will be fitted with latest mobile data connection and SIM card that automatically calls the emergency services in the event of an accident.