The Accidental Accomplishment of Little Smart: Understanding the

Emergence of a Working Class ICT

Jack Linchuan Qiu

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

October 7, 2005

Figure 1. The growth of Little Smart subscribers in China, 1999-2005 (million)

0.6 1.36

13

35

65

81.3

0102030405060708090

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 (July)

Figure 2. Annual growth rates of Little Smart subscription and regular mobile subscription in China, 1990-2004

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Cell phone growth (%)

Little Smart growth (%)

Figure 3 UTStarcom annual net sales revenue

(million USD)

Public/Private

Scalability

Figure 4. The declining profitability of UTStarcom, 2002-2004