Singapore and Hong Kong, December 6, 2012 – According to the latest IDC Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the PRC smartphone shipments reached a record high and broke past the 60 million unit mark in 2012 Q3, over three times more than PRC PC shipments in the same quarter. Smartphones shipped to the PRC grew 38% QoQ, far outpacing the 9% QoQ growth of the total mobile phone market.

"Vendors ramped up shipments and aggressively launched new models to meet consumer demand during the Q3 summer school vacation and the National Day holiday period," said James Yan, Senior Market Analyst for Computing Systems Research at IDC China. "A new wave of sub-US$150 smartphones with upgraded specifications, such as a 4-inch+ screen size and dual-core application processors, were especially popular."

Android extended its dominance of the PRC smartphone market, though new iOS and Windows Phone 8 handsets lined-up for Q4 are expected to spice things up. Meanwhile, Linux-based smartphones found a niche segment through low-cost handsets based on homegrown variant Aliyun OS. Despite Google's interference with Acer's Aliyun handset launch, Aliyun OS's integration with Alibaba's e-commerce and cloud services seem sufficient for it to sustain a niche segment.

The PRC smartphone market's impact on APEJ was especially pronounced this quarter, as the share of PRC smartphone shipments in APEJ further increased.

"The scale of the PRC smartphone market just blows you away. Never has there been one market that exerted so much influence on the region," said Wong Teck-zhung, Senior Market Analyst for Client Devices at IDC Asia/Pacific. "Chinese vendors Coolpad, Lenovo and ZTE made it to the APEJ top 5 vendors on strong performance in their home market, showing that it is not impossible for Chinese vendors to surpass international vendors."

Apple's PRC shipments declined this quarter, sending it down two spots to no. 6 with less than 10% market share, though a rebound is expected with the iPhone 5 slated for a mid-December launch.

Top Five PRC Smartphone Vendor Ranked by Unit Shipments, 2012 Q3

(2012 Q2 ranking in parenthesis)

1 (1) Samsung remained the leader and pace-setter for the market, inspiring both international and domestic vendors to launch their own quad-core and 5-inch+ screen size models.

2 (2) Lenovo outperformed the market through its aggressive ramp-up and improvements in channel partnerships.

3 (6) Coolpad broke into the top 5 for the first time on strong tie-ups with all three Chinese carriers.

4 (3) ZTE came under increased competition in the carrier subsidized handset business but held its own with low-cost and big screen models.

5 (5) Huawei also came under pressure from but kept its ranking and introduced more dual and quad-core models.

Figure 1

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