According to Strategy Analytics, China overtook the US to become the largest smartphone market by volume in Q3 2011. It saw smartphone shipments grow by 58 percent sequentially to 23.9 million units, compared to 23.3 million (a 7 percent sequential drop) in the US. According to Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics:
“The United States remains the world’s largest smartphone market by revenue, but China has overtaken the United States in terms of volume. China is now at the forefront of the worldwide mobile computing boom. China has become a large and growing smartphone market that no hardware vendor, component maker or content developer can afford to ignore.”
Nokia remained China’s top smartphone vendor (by shipments) in Q3 2011 with a 28.5 percent market share. It was followed by Samsung with a 17.6 percent market share. In contrast, HTC (24.0 percent) and Apple (20.6 percent) lead in the US.