Apple Owns 80% of The High-end Phones Market In China [2013]

According to a new report from Umeng, an app analytics firm in China, there were 700m active smartphones and tablets in China at the end of 2013 and Apple reportedly has 80 percent of the high-end phone market. This market is 27 percent of the total active base, the report said.In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple is only interesting in the high-end smartphone market:

“There’s always a large junk part of the market. We’re not in the junk business. The upper end of the industry justifies its higher prices with greater value. There’s a segment of the market that really wants a product that does a lot for them, and I want to compete like crazy for those customers. I’m not going to lose sleep over that other market, because it’s just not who we are. Fortunately, both of these markets are so big, and there’s so many people that care and want a great experience from their phone or their tablet, that Apple can have a really good business.”

Key highlights from Umeng’s 2013 report include:

There were 700m active smartphones and tablets in China at the end of 2013, and this almost doubled from 380m in Q1
High-end phones are a big market: 27% of the total active base, and 80% of those are iPhones
55% of the top 1000 apps include links to the major Chinese social platforms
20% of the top games use licensed third-party IP
App use and game use varies by how expense the phone is (unsurprising, but some good data on the details)
The Android market remains fragmented: Samsung has 24% (much lower than globally), Xiaomi is in 4th place and ‘other’ is a third of the market
And finally, pretty much every app category has at least doubled its active users in the year.

2013 Umeng Insight Report from Umeng

via Benedict Evans