Consumers in China bought 33.1 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2012, according to Needham & Co., far surpassing U.S. sales of 25 million. The continued global proliferation of smartphone devices has implications for the spread of mobile payment solutions across the world.
Android devices are much more popular than Apple’s iPhone in China, but Apple is gaining: its share of the smartphone market was 17.3 percent in the most recent quarter, up from 9.9 percent the same time a year ago, VentureBeat reports.
Part of the issue may be that China’s largest mobile carrier, the aptly named China Mobile, does not currently support the iPhone. But despite that, VentureBeat estimates that more than 15 million consumers use iPhons with China Mobile subscriptions, having “jailbroken” their phones to switch mobile providers.
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