China to Hit 246 Million iOS and Android Devices in February, Becoming World's Largest Market

[MacRumors]

According to a new report from Flurry, China is now the world's largest smart device market, passing the United States just after the Chinese New Year. The country has the most active Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

China began catching up to the U.S. late last year and as of January 2013, the two countries had approximately the same smart device user base, with 222 million in the United States and 221 million in China.

Based on the number of devices per country in the first half of February and growth trends, Flurry predicts that by the end of February 2013, China will outpace the U.S. by a wider margin with 246 million devices compared to 230 million in the United States. China is expected to retain that lead due to population numbers.

The U.S. and China have a huge number of active smart devices compared to other countries, with almost five times more devices than the U.K, which represents the third largest smart device market. As of January 2013, the U.K. had 43 million smart devices. South Korea and Japan are the fourth and fifth largest markets, with 30 and 29 million respectively.

China in particular has experienced rapid growth, adding 150 million devices during the course of 2012, compared to 55 million new devices in the U.S.

During Apple's quarterly results call this January, the company reported a 67 percent increase in revenue in China, amounting to $6.8 billion during the first fiscal quarter of 2013.

China has become an increasingly important market for Apple, as its second largest region. CEO Tim Cook spent part of January in the country, where he emphasized Apple's plans to expand in the country.

Article Link: China to Hit 246 Million iOS and Android Devices in February, Becoming World's Largest Market

[paul4339]

I wonder how many of those 221 Million are iOS ...

[iheartiphone4]

Here comes China!

[STiNG Operation]

That's impressive. I would also like to know the split of each device.

[rikscha]

I'm adding 3 iPhones + iPad in the UK. I'm making my contribution. Where are the people without one? Shame on you.

Edit: Apple TV ?

[Tankmaze]

China is a big market, very big. No wonder apple put an effort in ios personalization for the chinese market.

[Carnag3]

Really? The world biggest developed country is the worlds biggest market? How?

[Dr McKay]

Originally Posted by Carnag3

Really? The world biggest developed country is the worlds biggest market? How?

It's one of those statistics that catch people by surprise, like when you point out that more people in the World speak Chinese than English.

[phillipduran]

This world is going more and more in the direction of Firefly.

Dong ma?

[ArtOfWarfare]

Of course! All the companies have seen this coming for a long time, that's why they've all been manufacturing their devices in China for so long! They're all prepared for China being the largest market and so minimize cost by having to ship to dinky markets like the US rather than huge markets like China.

[MWPULSE]

What this doesn't seem to tell us, is the percentage ratio of person to smart device. According to wiki, the uk has about 63m, n the us is about ~315.. That would make both percentages of those countries at about 60-70% right? China, that's 25% lol...

[denilol]

What accounts for the temporary dips in the US chart?

[ProwlingTiger]

Why the hell someone does a survey like this and not separate them into Android and iOS is beyond me.

[paul4339]

Originally Posted by ProwlingTiger

Why the hell someone does a survey like this and not separate them into Android and iOS is beyond me.

the goal of the report was to highlight the growing Chinese mobile computing market and how it's overtaken the US. I think it wasn't really intended to an iOS vs Android report.

.

[devianter]

Originally Posted by Dr McKay

It's one of those statistics that catch people by surprise, like when you point out that more people in the World speak Chinese than English.

not true.

[Squilly]

Makes sense. 1.2 billion population vs 350 million population. They were bound to catch up.

[paul4339]

Originally Posted by denilol

What accounts for the temporary dips in the US chart?

do you see temporary dips or temporary peaks?
If it's peaks, it can possibly be the iphone 5 in late 2012, the middle peak can possibly be the release of 4S & holiday season -- the following mini hump, around march 2012 is probably iPad 3 US release.
The first one is a slower ramp up, can possibly be the ipad 2 (or maybe combined with the Galaxy S2).

.

[sputnikv]

while i don't have anything against them tapping the china market, as they should, it was somewhat of a downer when one of the few main things featured for ios6 were"new features for china"

[dampfnudel]

Originally Posted by rikscha

I'm adding 3 iPhones + iPad in the UK. I'm making my contribution. Where are the people without one? Shame on you.

Edit: Apple TV ?

It seems a lot of Europeans are still satisfied with their Nokia dumb phones or can't afford smartphones (over 50, immigrants, etc.). Here in the US, a lot of people have upgraded to a smartphone, including many over the age of 50.

Edit: Forgot, this applies to iOS.

[denilol]

Originally Posted by paul4339

do u see temporary dips or temporary peaks?
If it's peaks, it can possibly be the iphone 5 in late 2012, the middle peak can possibly be the release of 4S & holiday season -- the following mini hump, around march 2012 is probably iPad 3 US release.
The first one is a slower ramp up, can possibly be the ipad 2 (or maybe combined with the Galaxy S2).

.

But it is a graph of total number of devices. Those new device peaks should be accelerations, not rises then dips.

Unless people are buying tablets and not using them. I can't really see people not using phones. Still the dip in 2011 is in the tens of millions, too large to make sense.

[Munas]

It is easy to hit by numbers when a country has over the billion inhabitants. However, if to look to the Mobile-cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, one may see that China as well as US are far from the top in the list with 92.72 subscriptions per 100 in US and 73.19 in China (these are statistics for 2011, but I doubt something changed in these countries dramatically).
i.e. in Russia 179,31 mob subscription per 100 inhabitants. Even the small European country Lithuania has 151.3 cell subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, or 130.75 in UK.
So, instead of being the largest, greatest or ...est in any other way in the World, US and China would better try to tune its economies the way, that every one would be able to buy at least one phone.

[redhawk87]

For those NC people out there, this is like when an independent group reported Wake county (raleigh) to have a higher population than Mecklenburg county (Charlotte). Although both counties are growing rapidly, Wake county is larger in land area and thus has more room to expand. People in Charlotte do not want to accept the fact that they may not be the economic powerhouse of NC. Oh so much symbolism for such a random comment lol.

[mrsir2009]

Originally Posted by Carnag3

Really? The world biggest developed country is the worlds biggest market? How?

Yeah! Isn’t the USA the centre of the universe?

[iSayuSay]

Originally Posted by mrsir2009

Yeah! Isn’t the USA the centre of the universe?

I think he was simply being sarcastic of how come the world's biggest country become the world's largest market cannot be more OBVIOUS

[AnorexicPig]

Soon enough,India will come charging up the charts-thanks to 1.2 billion of us and growing