LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS SHANGHAI:  LeMobile’s focus on offering customers a mix of products and services means the company will “not be over-reliant on the devices for profit”, CEO Xing Feng said.

Appearing in the Global Device Summit today, the executive at one of China’s fastest growing smartphone players noted that with the company having shipped 10 million devices in China, there are two important factors that mean it is punching above its weight.

“First of all, all the units are above CNY1,000. And the other highlight is that for every handset we sell, we will obtain an active internet user, and that user will bring more value.”

“Our intention with hardware is to cultivate our users, and the hardware serves as the platform to play-out our services,” he said.

But to do this, it is vital to ensure the user remains central to the proposition: “The ultimate goal is to serve the users. So we have to focus on the users and the services – that is the key.”

The CEO noted that maturity in the device industry hardware has led to homogenisation, and that the resulting lack of differentiation has driven competition to be price-focused. “We cannot just compete in price, we have to compete in quality and experience,” he cautioned.

And with much attention being focused on the shift to open-market devices, sold through online and retail channels, the LeMobile chief said that this does not mean the end for relationships with operators.

“On the contrary, the carriers have a lot of resources to push the community forward.”