By Herman Lai, posted Jun 19, 2012 at 10:09 AM, 552 views,

In 2015, At Least 40% of Smartphones in China Will Be Priced Below $200

According to a report from Canalysys, the firm is expecting to see an increasing proportion of entry-level smartphones in the Chinese smartphone market, with 40 percent of smartphones sold in 2015. The batch of low-price smartphones are expected to produce by various local vendors like Xiaomi, Meizu and Alibaba. Therefore, we should see the number Android handsets to increase significantly in the next few years.

China is already the world’s largest smartphone market based on shipment volumes and device activation numbers. The country has an estimated of 250 million smartphone owners, and the below $200 smartphones are expected to make up 25 percent of sales this year. The local brands will play a significant role at the lower price points. Internet companies like Alibaba and Baidu are expected to increase competition in the low-end market. In addition, emerging vendors like Xiaomi and Meizu are building a reputation quickly in the youth market. On the other hand, international vendors such as Samsung, Apple and HTC, will continue dominate at the high-end segment. Leading local vendors like Huawei and ZTE will need more investment and time to deliver significant return on high-end devices.

Previously, a report from Eguan (a leading data research company in China) stated the number of Android-powered smartphones in China are still on the rise, it climbs from 68.4% in 2011 to 76.7% this year. In this sense, it would mean the increase of low-cost smartphones will be parallel with the increase of Android devices.

Furthermore, we also noticed the governments are urging local telecom companies to build more WiFi hotspot across the states, especially Beijing and Shanghai. It would be very interesting to see what China is going to look like when every Chinese netizens are engaged with the technology.

Source: Canalys via TNW