What's at the core of this smartphone war? (2)

Originally developed

Processors were originally developed with only one core. A dual-core processor has two cores while a quad-core processor contains four.

Meizu, a Zhuhai-based company, launched its new quad-core MX2 phone in Beijing last week. That raised eyebrows and attracted buyers. The MX2 sells at a starting price of 2,499 yuan.

Another China-brand, Xiaomi, said its 200,000 quad-core Xiaomi phone sold out within 18 minutes during an online sale last week.

Lenovo Group Ltd, whose majority smartphones are quad-core models costing less than 2,000 yuan, generated 17-fold growth in mobile phone sales in the third quarter, compared with a year ago. It's an integral part of the company's PC Plus strategy, said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo chairman.

Yang said he also expects the company to continue expanding in the mobile Internet and digital entertainment sectors as part of its PC Plus strategy.

Lenovo's share of the Chinese smartphone market in the third quarter was 14.8 percent, lagging only behind Samsung's 16.7 percent and ahead of Apple's 6.9 percent, according to Gartner Inc.

Gartner, the United States-based IT research firm, said it expects Lenovo to become the No. 1 player in the market by the end of next year.

ZTE Corp - which has just launched a quad-core phone globally, costing 1,999 yuan - said it hopes the quad-core model will help it expand in the medium- to higher-end of the market.

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