Phone makers seek worldwide coordination

As the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economies forged a blueprint for improving global value chains, manufacturers of smartphones were already seeking ways to get the job done.[Special coverage]

China is a key market to which every global smartphone maker wants access, not only because the country has 1.3 billion potential customers, but because it also dominates global smartphone manufacturing.

As the world eagerly waited to see what Apple's iPhone 6 would look like in early September, thousands of young workers at a Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, Henan province, were busy assembling the final components of the "next big thing".

The Chinese mainland is home to 349 iPhone 6 suppliers, the most in the world, according to the US technology website comparecamp.com.

A Forbes article last year said it would cost Apple $4.2 billion to move iPhone manufacturing back to the US from China. With rising material and manufacturing costs, keeping manufacturing in emerging markets such as China and Brazil would be a smart move for Apple.

The iPhone series is a perfect example of global resource coordination. The phones are designed in the US, but components are outsourced to Europe, China and other Asian countries. After final assembly in China, the smartphones will be distributed using a global logistics network and warehoused in different locations around the world.

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics is in charge of about 30 percent of iPhone's A Series chip manufacturing. Screen makers from Japan are also heavy players in Apple's ecosystem.

Chinese smartphone vendors are also seeking global cooperation to beef up their products.

Xiaomi Corp, a Beijing-based maker of middle-market and low-end phones, has partnered with Japanese screen, battery and camera makers.

Local smartphone component suppliers are expected to have a bigger say on the global stage as the government tries to boost related high-tech industries.

"Chinese chip manufacturers are expected to increase their share in the low-end smartphone market," said Kitty Fok, managing director of industry consultant IDC.

Even more Chinese vendors are heading to overseas markets for stronger demand and higher profit margins as sales growth in China slows.

Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo and ZTE Corp have all kicked off overseas sales, mainly targeting emerging economies in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.