China’s Spiking Smartphone Growth

Having overtaken the United States as the world’s largest smartphone market, China is now fast extending its lead. To wit, the latest metrics from market research outfit IDC, which chart some remarkable year-over-year growth. In the first quarter of 2013, China’s smartphone shipments topped out at 78 million units — a 117 percent increase over the same period in 2012, according to IDC. And that stratospheric growth shows no signs of slowing. By 2017, IDC expects smartphone shipments in China to exceed 460 million. The country’s top smartphone vendor? Samsung, with a market share of 19 percent. Archrival Apple ranks fifth, with a market share of nine percent.