China has surpassed the United States as the world's largest smart device market, according to mobile analytics firm, Flurry.
Following a year after being named the fastest-growing market for smart devices, China is expected to account for 246 million active Android and iOS smartphones, as well as tablets at the end of February; the U.S. is estimated to account for 230 million. Comparatively, the U.S. was leading the market with 222 million smart devices in January; China had 221 million.
"The U.S. will not take back the lead from China, given the vast difference in population per country," said Peter Farago, vice president of marketing at Flurry. "China has over 1.3 billion people while the U.S. has just over 310 million. Considering that the U.S. has the world's third-largest population, the only other country that could feasibly overtake China sometime in the future is India, with a population of just over 1.2 billion."
India had an install base of 19 million smart devices in January, in which it tied ninth place with Russia and Brazil. Coming in third was the U.K., accounting for 43 million smart devices, while South Korea (30 million) and Japan (29 million) completed the top five.
As for the growth between January 2012 and January 2013, Colombia boasted a growth rate of 278 percent; China experienced growth of 209 percent. Vietnam followed Columbia in second with 266 percent. Rounding out the top 5 were Turkey (247 percent), Ukraine (237 percent) and Egypt (211 percent).
Flurry based the aforementioned data on information attained by tracking more than 2.4 billion app sessions each day across more than 275,000 applications globally.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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sacre And?Reply
China will continue to grow and fast too due to their massive population.
As capitalism eats and diminishes the system over here, China will grow and grow and in 40 years time things will definitely be a LOT different. -
ipwn3r456 That's pretty common. China had alot more population than in the U.S. I don't think everyone in the U.S. owns more than 2 smart devices.Reply -
digiex ReplyAs capitalism eats and diminishes the system over here, China will grow and grow and in 40 years time things will definitely be a LOT different.
China is a capitalist nation with a dictatorial government. -
loomis86 sacreAnd?China will continue to grow and fast too due to their massive population.As capitalism eats and diminishes the system over here, China will grow and grow and in 40 years time things will definitely be a LOT different.Reply
Are you mentally challenged? the only reason "here" still has a larger economy than China even with the handicap of having only 1/4th the population...IS BECAUSE OF CAPITALISM, PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS, AND FREE MARKETS, ya nitwit. -
okibrian Most of them are Droids, so they are not that smart of devices. :D Sorry, I just had to get that shot in. Only playing.Reply -
TheMadFapper I have the feeling that China just wants to appear better than everyone else, at all costs. And we're over here like "umm yeah don't really care bro, wouldn't live in your dirty overcrowded country even if you paid us."Reply -
rantoc Azn CrackerNot that impressive given the fact they have 5 times the population of the USReply
Look at the headings of the curves and extrapolate them, its not hard to predict how the market will look 5 years from now if the same growth patterns continue.
TheMadFapperI have the feeling that China just wants to appear better than everyone else, at all costs. And we're over here like "umm yeah don't really care bro, wouldn't live in your dirty overcrowded country even if you paid us."
You know each new born American already owns over 56.000$ in foreign debts right? China has lend US the most of that so if that pattern continue in the same pace China will likely end up in reversed roles.