Chinese multinational automotive company, Geely’s founder Mr. Eric Li, has launched a new company ‘Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology Co Ltd’ dedicated to manufacturing smartphones.
The new company, Xingji Shidai has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone to establish its headquarters in the central Chinese city where it will produce smart devices including smartphones, according to Geely.
In a statement, Geely said that Xingji Shidai aims to position itself in the premium segment of the smartphone market. According to the public records Mr. Li currently owns 55 percent of the company.
“There is a close connection in technologies within intelligent vehicle cockpits and smartphone technologies. The major trend in the coming future is to create user ecosystems across borders and provide users with a more convenient, smarter and seamlessly connected multi-screen experience,” Mr. Li said in a statement.
Apart from vehicles, Geely has a Danish bank, a startup developing vehicle control software technology, and Geespace, a China-based firm that received approval from Beijing this year to make low-orbit satellites that will be the eyes in the sky for fully autonomous machines.
The smartphone market of China has matured since an initial boom in the last ten years. Shipments of handsets to China for the year 2020 reached 330 million units, marking an 11 percent annual decline.
However, major brands have increased their market share after US sanctions caused the once-dominant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to retreat from the market. Xiaomi Corp, a longtime Huawei rival, increased its sales domestically and abroad and ranked as the number-two brand worldwide this year for the first time.
