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China surpasses US as biggest market for Apple, Android devices

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The world's most populous nation is now the biggest market for devices such as Apple's iPhone and those running Google's Android operating system, as a new report has China surpassing the U.S. for the total number of smart devices in operation.

Research firm Flurry tracked more than 2.4 billion anonymous, aggregated application sessions across more than 275,000 applications around the world, finding that the Chinese smart device market surpassed the United States market over the last month. In January 2013, China's 221 million total active iOS and Android devices was about equal to the 222 million in the United States, according to Flurry.

From January 2012 to January 2013, the U.S. added 55 million new smart devices. Over the same period of time, China added nearly three times as many: 150 million new devices. Flurry's report estimates that, had it not been for the traditionally heavy holiday shopping season, China would have overtaken the U.S. two months ago.

Taking into account the rate of growth for the mobile market, China should at the end of February have roughly 246 million devices, while the U.S. should have 230 million.

Given that China has more than four times the population of the United States, Flurry does not expect the U.S. to regain the lead in device activations.

Flurry 2

The only country that could come close is India, which has a population comparable to China's. India, though, currently stands at only 19 million active smart devices, by Flurry's estimate, and is not likely to challenge China in the near future. China and the United States each have more than five times the smart device install base of the next largest market, the United Kingdom.

Even given its massive install base, China still ranks among the top 10 fastest growing Android/iOS markets. At 209 percent growth year-over-year, it ranks sixth in therms of growth rate. Topping that list are Colombia and Vietnam, at 287 and 266 percent growth, respectively.

Flurry's report tags the mobile computing boom as the fastest-adopted technology revolution in history, pegging it at 10 times faster than the PC revolution and three times faster than the Internet boom. China is apparently now at the forefront of that revolution, and Apple in particular is keenly aware of the opportunities and challenges presented by the world's most populous country.

Flurry 3

Apple CEO Tim Cook has made multiple visits to China in the past year, meeting with executives from China Mobile, the country's — and the world's — largest wireless carrier. Such meetings, along with recent payment option changes, are aimed at getting Apple products into the hands of Chinese consumers, who typically cannot afford the premium pricing Apple attaches to its wares.

Among the Chinese that can afford Apple products, the company's offerings have proven an immense success. The iPhone 5 moved two million units in its first weekend of Chinese availability, and Apple's iPad mini reportedly debuted to insatiable demand.

Discussing the issue in quarterly conference calls and interviews, Cook has noted the importance of the Chinese market in Apple's future plans. The company already heavily relies on China and southeast Asia in general for supplies and cheap manufacturing labor, but figures like those seen in Flurry's report are leading analysts and investors to predict that the company must make lower-cost iDevices in order to fully address the mobile computing boom in emerging markets.



22 Comments

gwmac 17 Years · 1800 comments

Surprised Japan was so few. It has a much larger population than either Korea or the U.K. I would have expected it to easily have 60 or 70 million active smart phones by now. Guess that Galapagos effect is still somewhat still in play with their unique but pretty powerful feature phones with 20MP cameras and other features they are reluctant to let go for a smart phone. I read this story on CNN last night as part of their silly Samsung is out innovating Apple fluff piece and winning in China. [URL=http://cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2013/01/25/dnt-chiou-samsung-apple.cnn]http://cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2013/01/25/dnt-chiou-samsung-apple.cnn[/URL]

dave maclachlan 12 Years · 191 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by gwmac 

Surprised Japan was so few. It has a much larger population than either Korea or the U.K. I would have expected it to easily have 60 or 70 million active smart phones by now. Guess that Galapagos effect is still somewhat still in play with their unique but pretty powerful feature phones with 20MP cameras and other features they are reluctant to let go for a smart phone.

I read this story on CNN last night as part of their silly Samsung is out innovating Apple fluff piece and winning in China.

http://cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2013/01/25/dnt-chiou-samsung-apple.cnn

Well, there's proof-positive that some of the obscene money being spent by Samsung on marketing is paying off. :/

philboogie 15 Years · 7669 comments

I understand that the localization of the iOS software for the Chinese market is of high quality (language, Emoji, handwriting) Is the quality on Android comparable? (No jokes please) If not, I would bet that Apple will have a major advantage over Android, because history keeps on proving it is all about the experience, and not the price.

obama 13 Years · 62 comments

So, the Chinese people want to walk around banging into lamp posts and falling through open manholes while tweeting and texting just like we do?

 

What a legacy to share with the world.   More people surfing and texting while driving, walking down stairs, and sitting on exercise equipment not exercising.  

 

Just what the world needed.