Apple iPhone Ranks Seventh in 1H12 China Smartphone Market

China is the largest cell phone market and smartphone market, after China’s smartphone market overtook the US at the end of 2011, according to Strategy Analytics, while app analytics firm Flurry found that China registers more new Android and iOS devices than any other country worldwide.

There were 69.1 million smartphones shipped in the China market during the first half of 2012, and Apple shipped 5.2 million iPhone units for a market share of 7.5%, ranking 7th among international and China-based vendors, according to market research by IHS iSuppli.

Apple has the largest or second largest share for smartphones in almost every country around the world, and the exception in China was mainly because Apple had not launched iPhone models supporting TD-SCDMA, or inexpensive entry-level models, iSuppli said.

There will be an estimated 160 million smartphones shipped in the China market in 2012, growing 141% from 2011, of which 28 million or 17.5% will be TD-SCDMA models, iSuppli forecast.

Apple is likely to launch a TD-SCDMA iPhone in the China market in 2013 adopting Qualcomm-developed TD-SCDMA chips in cooperation with China Mobile, iSuppli indicated.

iSuppli: Leading vendors of smartphones by shipments in China, 1H12
Vendor	Market share
Samsung Electronics	20.8%
Lenovo	11.0%
Coolpad	10.4%
Huawei	9.8%
Nokia	9.1%
ZTE	8.4%
Apple	7.5%

Source: IHS iSuppli, compiled by Digitimes, August 2012

See more at Digitimes "China market: Apple ranks 7th in 1H12 smartphone market share, says iSuppli".

According to another report from IDC, during the 2nd Quarter of 2012, in China Lenovo led that charge, growing its share to 11 percent and taking the second spot from Apple. Apple share of China smartphone mkt almost halved in Q2. Apple’s arch rival, Samsung, remained the most shipped smartphone maker in China with 19 percent share – showing no change on the previous quarter. Apple, in fact, dropped down to fourth, slipping behind local telecom powerhouse ZTE, while fellow Chinese firm Huawei completed IDC’s top five, despite IDC noting a “slight decrease” for the latter’s shipments.