A media report said that the market for 4G handsets would hit a projected 90 million devices this year when major wireless companies push for strong marketing strategies to attract customers.

The IHS Technology published a report last Wednesday saying that a large demand will be driven by China Mobile. The latter is the biggest mobile carrier in the world by number of users. However, China Mobile said that it has cut its estimated sales target for this year by 70 million.

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IHS Technology also added that China Mobile’s move to decrease its projected sales target was lower from the earlier estimates of 100 million devices.

Chinese authorities have awarded licenses for three telecom services providers, majority owned by the state, in December last year to operate 4G mobile networks under a standard developed by China. China’s standard Time-Division Long Term Evolution of TD-LTE was mandated to be the technology used in 4G mobile networks.

However, as of April this year, China Mobile said that there were only 4.8 million subscribers using the new high-speed data services. The number of users using TD-LTE was very low after the company recorded a hefty 784.6 million registered customers, according to a data posted on the carrier’s official site.

Meanwhile, individual smartphone makers including Samsung Electronics could take the best chance to lead the 4G market in China. The South Korean-based company has recorded a 15 percent grasp in the smartphone market of China in 2013.

The IHS data also showed that Samsung Electronics remained to be the largest player in the Chinese mobile market. On the other hand, Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC’s share in the Chinese market has slumped to 2.1 percent last year from 2012’s 3.5 percent.

IHS added that HTC has fell to the 12th spot after ranking ninth in 2012.

Tags4G market, China Mobile, TD-LTE, Time-Division Long Term Evolution, IHS