China sold 71.478 mln units of domestic mobile phone sets in the first half of 2007, generating 84.58 bln yuan in revenue, representing increases of 25.5 pct and 5.5 pct, respectively, said CCID Consulting in a research report.

'With continuous price drops and growing low-end product sales, revenue from mobile phone sales are falling year by year...(while) overall profits in the mobile phone market are gradually falling,' said the research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider.

CCID said a brand pattern has emerged in which China's low-end product sales have increased foreign brands' shares of the mobile phone market.

It noted that in the first half, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung accounted for 61.4 pct of the overall mobile phone market, up 8.9 pct year-on-year.

Nokia and Motorola both saw a notable rise in their market shares, together rising almost 10 pct, which CCID said was likely due to the two companies staging major offensives in the low-end mobile phone market in the period.

Nokia and Motorola accounted for 57 pct of the market for mobile phones priced between 500-700 yuan, while the two companies' share of the market for phones priced under 500 yuan reached nearly 70 pct.

(1 usd = 7.56 yuan)