China-based branded handset vendors including Lenovo, ZTE and Huawei Technologies are expected to venture into the production of smartphone models with a price tag of around US$100 in 2012 - a move which will add pressure on white-box vendors in China as well as on upstream parts and components suppliers, according to industry sources.

The China-based makers are responding to growing competition from foreign branded smartphones vendors including HTC, Apple and Samsung Electronics, which have recently expanded their product lineups for the entry-level and mid-range markets, the sources noted.

Although HTC has refuted market rumors that it plans to launch smartphones for the US$100 segment, the sources said HTC has been trying to reduce its production costs by introducing models with comparable hardware specifications but running on different operating systems.

Taking the HTC Titan and HTC Sensational XL for example, the hardware specifications of the two models are comparable, but the HTC Titan runs on Windows Phone platform, while the HTC Sensational XL is powered by Android 2.3.4.

Apple's launch of 8GB iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS is also a vivid indication of the vendor's ambition to expand its share in the entry-level and mid-range smartphone segments, the sources commented.