China overtakes U.S. to become the top smart device market

According to the data released by Flurry, China has overtaken the U.S. to become the top smart device market (in terms of the number of active iOS and Android smart device, including both smartphones and tablets) in the world.

In January 2013, the number of active iOS & Android smart devices were roughly the same in China (221 million) and the U.S. (222 million). But with the much faster growth rate in China, Flurry estimated that China would surpass the U.S. by the end of February 2013.

Flurry also commented that they believed China would continue to take the lead due to the huge difference in population for the two countries (China population is over 1.3 billion while the U.S. population is only over 310 million).

 

Active iOS & Android Devices, U.S. versus China (millions)

 

The below chart also shows that the U.S. and China are way ahead of other countries in terms of number of active iOS & Android devices. For instance, the U.S. and China each has over five times the number of active iOS & Android devices when compared to the U.K., which is the third largest smart device market in the world.

 

Countries with greatest number of active iOS & android devices (smartphones and tablets)

 

Localizing your app is important to capture the China market

As discussed in our previous blog post, users in China generally prefer apps that support their local language, which is Simplified Chinese. According to the studies by Distimo, roughly 70% of free downloads and roughly 80% of app revenues in China are generated from apps that support Simplified Chinese.

The importance of localizing your apps

 

Translating your app is easy with OneSky.

  1. Simply upload your resource file (e.g. .strings for iOS apps, .xml for Android apps, etc.)
  2. Select your target language(s) and pay
  3. Download the translation in ready-use resource file format
    • For any subsequent update, simply upload your resource file again and our platform can auto-detect what are new –> never translate the same thing twice!

It’s really that simple! Learn more.

 

Image courtesy of Deleket at iconarchive.com

Amanda Wong

Amanda heads Customer Success at OneSky. Her interests include growth hacking, customer success, analytics or simply anything related to growth.

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