Global mobile brands find lines busy in China

The huge subscriber base is the most important reason for China rising as a heavyweight in the global mobile phone industry. According to research firm Strategy Analytics, China overtook the United States in terms of smartphone shipments in the third quarter last year.

"China is now at the forefront of the worldwide mobile computing boom," said Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics. "The nation has become a large and growing smartphone market that no hardware vendor, component maker or content developer can afford to ignore."

Sabrina Ren, research manager with GfK Group, said China is the strongest growth driver for the world's smartphone industry. The country is expected to achieve a growth rate of 109 percent in terms of smartphone shipments in 2012, almost three times that of the rest of the world's estimated average during the same period, GfK statistics show.

In addition, China, as the largest mobile phone manufacturing base across the globe, has started to influence markets outside the country.

In the first half of this year, China produced 535 million mobile devices, of which about 85 percent were exported overseas to markets such as South Asia, Africa and Middle East, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Meanwhile, with the rise of Chinese handset brands, such as Huawei's and ZTE's, some major market trends in China are having a global impact, said Ren.

"For example, the 1,000 yuan entry-level smartphone success has spread to other countries," she said. By working with foreign operators, domestic companies such as ZTE and Huawei have managed to ship affordable smartphones in quantities to the North American and European markets, she added.

It is not just the sheer scale of the mobile subscriber base that makes China a heavyweight in the world market, analysts say. KPMG's Zarrella said the increasing demand by Chinese people for connectivity and rich mobile functions, together with the nation's huge investment in infrastructure and innovation, have also pushed forward China's handset industry.

"Chinese consumers want higher quality phones at a very good price. Meanwhile, they need mobile phones not just for calls but for video on demand and the use of cloud computing concepts to allow subscribers to store even more data," Zarrella wrote.

Tom Kang, a director at Strategy Analytics, added: "China's rapid growth has been driven by an increasing availability of smartphones in retail channels, aggressive subsidizing by operators of high-end models such as the Apple iPhone and an emerging wave of low-cost Android models from local Chinese brands such as ZTE."

Contact the writers at shenjingting@chinadaily.com.cn