China becomes hugest smartphone market in the world
China has taken over the United States into the smartphone market in the world by volume, although the U.S. still leads in terms of revenue, was revealed by a market research company, on Wednesday (11/23/2011).
Strategy Analytics says that the smartphone shipments reached 24 million units in China during the third quarter this year compared to 23 million units in the United States.
"The United States remains the world's largest market smartphones based on revenue, but China has taken over the United States in terms of volume," said the executive director of Strategy Analytics, Neil Mawston.
"China is now at the forefront of the explosion of mobile computing worldwide," Mawston said. "China has become a large and growing market of smartphones that do not exist hardware vendors, component makers or content developers can afford to ignore."
Strategy Analytics said, smartphone shipments to China grew 58 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter to 23.9 million units and fell seven percent to 23.3 million units in the United States in the same period.
"The rapid growth of China has been driven by increased availability of smartphones in the retail channel, aggressive subsidies by the operator of high-end models like the Apple iPhone, and the emergence of a wave of cheap Android model from Chinese local brands," said Strategy Analytics director, Tom Kang.
