We all knew it would happen eventually. The Republic of China officially shipped out more smartphones than the entire US last quarter, pushing out 23.9 million to its many people compared to just 23.3 million stateside. This may not really be news to you, but China has a lot of people. You can bet all of your money that there will be an increase in shipments in China from now on. The influx of smartphone users in China has come due in part to the mobile industries recent concentration on the booming Chinese technology market. Because of cheaper labor and lessened policy restrictions this comes as no surprise. Corporations such as ZTE, Samsung, Nokia, and now Apple see China as 1 billion potential customers. Nokia is leading the pack with a 28% marketshare. Compare that to around 350 million people in the US. One report for US smartphones users estimates that nearly 145 million Americans are phone subscribers while a little more than half are smartphone users (source below). Companies like Blackberry and Palm were pushing smartphones on us since 2002. Imagine this: China has barely scratched the surface.

If that’s not scary enough for you, the largest phone subscription company in China, China Mobile, is bringing its services for availability stateside (mainly for business travelers and Chinese-American citizens who travel back and forth between here and there). This is just another indicator that China needs to be taken serious in the tech world.

SOURCE(S): ENGADGET, TWITTOWN.COM