China Mobile Phone Market Snapshot – Dec 2011

There were over 975 million mobile phone users as of November 2011 according to the MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China). Mobile phones have become an indispensable tool for modern communication.

2011 was the year of smartphone in China. iPhones, iPads, Andriod smartphones and tablets became hot search topics on search engines as well as popular topics in people’s daily life. Looking back on the year, it seems that after just one night, everyone in China started holding a big screen phone or tablet on the subway, at restaurants, even while waiting for red lights. You can see them almost everywhere.

I’ve prepared a little data for you on the types of mobile devices being used in China as of the end of 2011. The data is collected from ZOL and based on a metric they call “attention rate”, which is a metric used by ZOL to estimate sales and popularity. It is based on the click rates of Chinese Internet users that have used one or more of ZOL's 85 websites or 79 other media sites such as Sina, Sohu, QQ, 163 and Taobao.

Top 5 Mobile Brands by Attention Rate in 2011

Nokia and Samsung took the first and second place, with Samsung slipping up to number 1 in quarter 4. HTC and Motorola took third and fourth place. Sony Ericsson started at fifth place but was then displaced by Apple.

Bigger Screens Became More Popular

As more and more phones are now touch-screen, big screen phones have become more and more popular. 3.3 to 4 inches is the most common size, and rose in attention rate from 31.4% to 49.8% over the past year. Will mobile phones in China continue to grow in size?

Mobile Phone Price Trends in the Chinese Market

Although the overall average price of mobile phones didn’t change much, smartphone prices are clearly on an upward trend.

From all the charts above, we can see that 2011 was a milestone in Chinese mobile phone market history. The industry leader Nokia is facing a greater challenge than ever before. Phone prices, one of the most important factors that affects purchase decisions, continued to rise along with the functionality of smartphones.

About the author

Samantha Wang is the manager at Nanjing Marketing Group, where she coordinates a wide variety of Chinese localization and marketing projects for Western clients. Samantha has a Bachelor of Management degree from Nanjing University of Technology.