Apple seen at 6% of the Chinese smartphone market but rising

From Chinese search engine Baidu:

In the first quarter of 2012, Nokia, counterfeit (shanzhai) mobile phones and Samsung remain in the top three mobile Internet slots, with market shares of 22 percent, 16.1 percent and 10.4 percent respectively. Nokia’s mobile market share continues to drop, with 5.8 decrease month-by-month and 18.4% drop year-on-year. Shanzhai phones’ market share is also steadily decreasing, with 4.3 percent decrease month-by-month and 10.3 percent drop year-on-year.

Although Nokia still remains one of the biggest mobile brands by market share, it is faces a dire future if it does not innovate in an industry that is gradually gravitating towards smart phones. Apple now occupies the 4^th spot with 5.9 percent of the market share, while Chinese brand Huawei has performed well in recent years, currently ranks 5^th in market share with 4.6 percent.

Microsoft recently boasted that it passed Apple in China with Windows Phone 7, which is likely on top of Nokia’s past success in the Mainland and that the iPhone is not offered by the largest Chinese carrier, China Telecom.

Perhaps most troubling, however, is when you add Microsoft and Apple’s market share together. It still does not approach the combined market share of the counterfeit phones that are currently a whopping 16 percent of the market.

China has a long way to go.