As growth in the high-end smartphone market slows, new data helps illustrate once again why low-cost smartphones and feature phones are so important. According to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the mobile phone user base in China grew 12% on-year in May to nearly 1.17 billion subscribers. Digitimes reports that 303.37 million of those users owned 3G-enabled phones and 813.39 million had access to the Internet. To help illustrate just how huge cell phone proliferation is in China, consider this: Only 274.07 million people in the country subscribed to fixed-line telephone services in May. Where smartphones are concerned, Samsung is currently the top-selling vendor while Apple sits at No.5, according to recent data from market research firms IDC and Strategy Analytics.
Why low-end phones are so important: Mobile user base grows to 1.17 billion in China
Published Jun 26th, 2013 7:50AM EDT
If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.
Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.
His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.
