China's government proudly announced that the country has become the first to register more than 900 million cell phone users.
Thanks to the recent addition of 11 million mobile phone users in April, the figure was just enough to take the number of the country's cell phone users up to 900.3 million, according to the report by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Tuesday (May 24).
China's mobile phone adoption rate has been surging for several years. In last April, the country had about 787 million mobile phone users, compared with 679 million users in April 2009.
However, India is not so far behind as the country had 811 million mobile phone users at the end of March. It represents an increase of about 20 million users month-on-month, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The United States has 303 million mobile phone users, according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA).
Nokia is currently China's biggest handset manufacturer, accounting for a 29.6% share of the mobile phone market, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International, followed by Samsung with 22.6%.
As the number of mobile phone users continue to grow, smartphone sales are also increasing around the country. The devices currently make up about 28 percent of all mobile phone sales in China. Analysys expects that the figure is about to reach 50 percent as the price for smartphones is set to fall by 2013.
Meanwhile, the Android system is becoming the most popular in the smartphone market. Last year, the number of Android users climbed from 872,000 to almost 11 million, according to Analysys.
People using 3G in China are still only a small proportion of the country's total mobile users since the networks launched in 2009. In April, China had a total of 67 million 3G users but analysts expect that number will rise over the coming years.
References:
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology 工業和信息化部
Source:Tsing Hua &China Watch Times.com
