China’s smartphone market saw strong growth throughout 2008, with shipments showing a 30 percent increase over the previous year, reports In-Stat. Smartphones accounted for 15.3 percent of total mobile phone shipments in China last year, up from 12 percent in 2007.
“Mobile Internet applications, GPS, and multimedia functionality were the most important drivers,” says Alex Liu, In-Stat analyst. “In the smartphone OS marketplace, Symbian retained its leading position and saw a small share increase in 2008 due to steady growth of Nokia smartphone sales and a drop in Linux smartphone sales.”
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
- China’s smartphone shipments are projected to more than triple by 2013.
- The next wave of smartphone market growth will be driven by lower barriers to entry in both OS and chipset platform solutions.
- A free and complete smartphone software platform from OHA and the Symbian Foundation will fuel smartphone market growth in the coming years.
In-Stat
