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By Star Chang, posted Jul 4, 2011 at 4:53 PM, 1,263 views,

The Chinese Love Nokia More Than iPhone for Mobile Web Surfing?

Smartphones are getting more popular in China, so which brand and model do the Chinese people love to use for web browsing? The answer is not Apple’s iPhone, or any of the numerous Android smartphones, but the Nokia 5230! An international advertising and marketing company has discerned that this Nokia Symbian handset, which was launched in 2009, has the largest numbers used by Chinese mobile users to access the internet. It is hard to believe that Chinese users still prefer the outdated Symbian OS for web surfing…

This graph shows the amount of Internet surfing done in China, according to device. Even though, this information was not done officially by some professional research companies, it still own a high credibility because the infomation is provided by the Asia-Pacific director of Ogilvy. It is interesting to note how Nokia still dominates in terms of the number of devices in China. Although the mighty iPhone is beaten to number two, it’s still impressive that the Apple smartphone, which is owned only by several million middle-income Chinese people, manages to rack up so much web surfing time. It also tell us how quickly Android has become the top-5 devices for mobile Internet in China. The next version of this graph is almost certain to show how iOS or Android vying for number 1 slot.

Nokia always put affordable smartphones into the mass market where top-end gadgets such as the iPhone is far too expensive for most Chinese mobile-phone users. In China, Nokia’s Ovi App Store is far-and-away the primary source of mobile apps. A study conducted early this year showed that Nokia’s Ovi Store is the most frequently visited mobile application store in China. It had 65.2 percent of mobile users who frequently access the store, Google’s Android Market ranked third with a low 13.7 percent, and Apple’s App Store, which launched its Chinese version during 2010 is ranked fifth at 9.4 percent. These data were collected during the year of 2010.

pic2
The Nokia 5230 was launched in 2009, and it is selling dead cheap in China!

Nokia might be losing its smartphone market share in the U.S but it is way ahead of Apple and Google in the Chinese market. An iPhone handset costs about 5000 yuan (US$753) in China, while the Nokia 5230 only cost about 1200 yuan (US$185). Although Apple craze continues to grow in China, low-income people like factory workers will choose the more affordable smartphones. In China, the mass market is build up by these people. Meanwhile, many phone manufacturers have already embraced Android as the standard, so we shall see how well Apple and Google will perform this year, but we expect Nokia’s Symbian handset will still remain popular for the Chinese.

Source: Thomas Crampton via Penn Olson, iResearch
Photo credit: Engadget Chinese

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JBZGEKODLMMN4FON37X5OMTL4E Paul Johnson

    I think I would love Nokia more than iPhone for mobile web surfing too if I could save 3800 yuan by doing so.  Is there any compensating difference in monthly charges between China Mobile and China Unicom?

  • Anonymous

    The price given here is stand alone handset, we believe under contract will be even cheaper !

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3M7U73TMW54LPZ5C25ZXU6BTTY Adam Chew

    Truly incredible because nokia phones are slow and not user friendly.

    I owned an N97 that how I know.

    • Anonymous

      In China, end-user do not care too much on user experience, the most important factor they will care is the price and functionality.

  • $330AShareMakesMeWeep>8.-.(..

    It certainly does make sense that the Chinese consumer or any consumer would buy and use what they can afford.  Of course, if the Chinese could choose between the two if there wasn’t a price difference, I’m sure they would favor the iPhone.  However, I would question Apple going after those type of consumers.  Let Nokia have them.

    • Anonymous

      Apple is always selling the high-end staff, as for nokia and motorola, they have more attention on low budget cellphone, which serve those developing countries.

  • Anonymous

    This graph is totally misleading, the graph is pretty but how did they collect the data, what is the group of people surveyed, is 1,000 or 1 million, Or is it just the marketing firm that works for nokia creating a graph that makes nokia look good. Sure If I saw a more scientific study I may believe it because there are a lot of ppl in china using nokia’s, there are three brands Nokia Apple and Google Android, what about shanzhai phones or other brands? Android has just over 3 bars (whatever that means) and apple iphone has 5 bars (whatever that means) and then the nokia 5230 has 6 bars (whatever that means)

    Really I love most of the stuff you guys write but I’m afraid this ain’t news it’s advertising!!

    • Anonymous

      The news was not really advertised on Nokia smartphone, the title of the post has already emphasis a question mark — ‘’?’’ … and we have stated that this information was not done officially by any professional research
      companies, but it is still interesting to look into it because the info is
      provided by a director from a famous advertising and marketing company.

      For more info on China smartphone market overview, you can see here :
      http://www.east-west-connect.com/china-smartphones/2010-2011-china-smartphone-market-overview

  • simma lugnt

    Interesting that Apple still has a quite large market share, even though its declining in most countries. Well with one model it must be difficult or probably impossible to stand up against Android. With Andorid you dont need to install iTunes either, thank God for that. And flash works also and theres a lot of different manufactures and models. I think Windows 7 Phone will grow quite quickly though it works good for companies. Nokia is s oom launhing N9 with the MeeGo OS, probably the best OS ever and open which i prefer instead of Apples locked down iOS. Hope more will go for MeeGo.

    • Anonymous

      Dont think Mee go or Windows 7 Phone can get market share in China … they belong to those high end phones model. What make Nokia success in China are all those low end smartphone to go with Symbian, but sooner or later, this will take over by Google Android, lots of Chinese manufacturer are supporting it now.