Nation becoming top mobile phone market

Smartphones are advertised at a China Mobile Ltd store in Shanghai.Chinese shoppers are expected to buy more than 400 million smartphones this year and the amount is on track to break 500 million by 2016, Analysys International said. AFP

China will become the world's largest mobile phone market by revenue for the first time by year end, overtaking the United States, an industry report said. Internet guru Mary Meeker has identified the country as the most mobile nation in the world.

Phone sales will reach $87 billion in China during 2014, a jump of 53 percent year-on-year. That compares with $60 billion projected sales in the US, Strategy Analytics said.

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Smartphones dominate sales. Chinese shoppers will buy more than 400 million smartphones this year, according to local research company Analysys International. The amount is on track to break 500 million by 2016, it said.

Meeker acknowledged China's role in the global mobile Internet sector. The world's second-largest economy is moving swiftly to become a leader in mobile commerce, helped with applications installed on smartphones, according to Meeker. She is a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

As of last year, more than 500 million Chinese were using mobile devices - primarily smartphones - to connect to the Internet, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. The penetration rate of mobile Internet users rose to a record 81 percent in 2013.

China beat the US in terms of smartphone shipments in 2012.

The growth in mobile devices is driven by the country's rapid shift to fourth-generation telecommunications technologies, analysts said.

Leading players, such as Samsung Electronics Co, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Lenovo Group Ltd, have pledged to expand their distribution channels, and a widening product offering is diversifying demand in China.

Although China leads the global mobile phone market in many ways, the Strategy Analytics report said the US is most likely to remain the most valuable market by profit for a while.

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