China Takes Over From the US as Biggest Smartphone Market

[Maura]

9to5 Mac reports on a couple of news stories doing the rounds today regarding China’s position in the international smartphone market. According to a new report on Digitimes, in March, China passed the milestone of 1 billion total mobile phone subscribers, with a growing rate of 1.18% per month. Also, another report out today from research firm Catalyst finds that China has now overtaken the US as the world’s largest smartphone market. According to Catalyst, China’s smartphone market has grown 81% year-over-year, and in contrast, the US smartphone market has only grown by 5%. In Q1 of 2012, China was responsible for 22% of worldwide smartphone shipments, whereas the US was responsible for 16%. 9to5 Mac says that China’s growth during this particular period of time is probably due to China Telecom starting with the iPhone 4S in Q1 2012. However, two thirds of smartphones shipped in China in Q1 of this year were Android. Although Apple is already making great inroads in China, 9to5 Mac notes, it stands to capture even more of that huge potential Chinese market once it gets the iPhone onto China Mobile, the largest carrier in China. It is highly likely that this will happen with the next iPhone, which many think will have Qualcomm’s new chip that is compatible with China Mobile’s network.

Source: China passes US in smartphone usage, over a billion mobile subscribers overall | 9to5Mac | Apple Intelligence