One Chinese in three without a smartphone

Overall, 68 per cent of Chinese owns a smartphone. China is the largest manufacturer in the world. About 100 million of latest generation phones are sold each quarter. Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi are driving the sales boom.


Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – One-third of Chinese does not own a smartphone, this according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.

Some 68 per cent of Chinese reported owning smartphones, ranking the nation as the world’s 15th-most penetrated market for such ownership, behind Lebanon, Jordan and Chile. South Korea is in first place, with 94 per cent, the United States is eighth, with 77 per cent.

The same cannot be said about production. In fact, China is the world’s largest smartphone market by unit sales, posting about 100 million shipments each quarter, or nearly a third of the world’s total

Leading the way are Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi, many producing relatively high-quality models with prices as low as US$ 100 and sometimes even lower.

Got its part, Xiaomi has ramped up smartphone ownership in price-sensitive markets like India.

China is one of the world’s most highly penetrated markets for overall mobile phone ownership, with 98 per cent of people surveyed reporting they owned either a smartphone or an older-feature phone.