Statistics and facts about the smartphone market in China

In 2012, China overtook the United States to become the world’s largest global smartphone market in terms of shipment. In that year, smartphone shipments in China were estimated to have reached 208 million units, accounting for almost 21 percent of the entire global smartphone market share. By the end of 2012, the number of smartphone users in China had reached 380 million, smartphone sales to end users were also reaching new levels, with sales around 169 million units sold in total that year. During the fourth quarter of 2012, smartphones made up 74.5 percent of the total cell phone sales volume, 90 percent of which were 3G smartphones.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, Samsung occupied 22.5 percent of the Chinese market, selling a total of 30.06 million smartphones within that year. Lenovo came in at second place with a 10.7 percent market share, closely followed by Huawei Technologies with 9.9 percent and finally Coolpad with 9.5 percent. In 2011, international brands such as Samsung, Nokia, Apple and HTC controlled 70 percent of the Chinese smartphone market, whereas Chinese brands such as Huawei, Leneovo, ZTE and Coolpad accounted for 24.5 percent. No-name brands that were sold at lower prices had a market share of 5 percent. It is worth noting that those mid- and low-end models are estimated to make up 35 percent of China’s market by 2015, curbing the dominance of the international brands by some 30 percent. Smartphones in the 700 to 1,500 yuan (US$111 to 240) price range accounted for 50 percent of devices sold in the fourth quarter of 2012.

In terms of operating platform market share, the Chinese market was dominated by Google’s Android operating system. 90.1 percent of smartphones sold in the fourth quarter of 2012 ran this operating system, with iOS and Symbian OS constituting 4.2 and 2.4 percent respectively.

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