BEIJING, September 28 (TMTPOST)— Volvo’s parent Geely started its fight for a piece of pie  in the bustling smartphone market. Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology Co., Ltd, a startup founded by Geely’s chairman Li Shufu, announced on Tuesday that it signed a strategic partnership agreement with Wuhan  Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ), a national development zone in the capital of a province in Central Southern China, and officially announced entry into the smartphone sector.

According to the agreement, Xingji Shidai, located in WEDZ, aims to produce premium smartphones with technologies and resources integrated across the globe and serve international market, not just homeland. The company, founded on September 26 with the registered capital of RMB80 million, will take full advantage of several years’ experiences in design, R&D, intelligent manufacturing, supply chain management accumulated in Geely and Volvo’s ecosystem and global business expansion efforts including a network of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites Geely’s aerospace unit Geespace is working at. The startup is believed to produce synergies in vehicle intelligence, software building, and technological transition.

“Mobile phone seems like a fast iterated portable mobile terminal and functions as the application medium for the market validation of electronics and their software innovation. It allows not just users’ sharing innovations as soon as possible but also applications of some of safe and reliable innovations in automobile industry, so as to achieve close interaction among software technologies of vehicles and mobile phones,” Li Shufu said.”Creating user ecosystem across different sectors and building the business moats is becoming a big trend in the future. Mobile phone can connect Internet of vehicles (IOV) and network of satellites, create various consuming demands, make ecosystem stronger, and offer a more convenient and intelligent multi-screen interactive life experiences that realize internet of everything to users.”

These years Geely has been increasing investment in futuristic technologies to accelerate transition to innovative technology company. To foray into mobile phone market can act as a key booster as business expansion to satellite and flying cars. On September 26, a day earlier than the announcement of Xingji Shidai’s smartphone program, Geely’s first commercial satellite came off the assembly line.