Apple: China world’s fastest-growing iPhone market

Following the release of Apple’s most recent quarterly figures, the company has said China has become its fastest-growing iPhone market.

More details from digitaltrends.com:

PC World reports that during [Apple’s public quarterly earnings] call, Apple’s acting CEO Tim Cook said that iPhone sales in “Greater China” grew by nearly 250 percent from the same period (Jan. – March) last year.

In addition, the Cuppurtino company made roughly $5 billion from China in the last six months, about 10 percent of Apple’s revenues.

“So we’re extremely happy with how we’re doing in China,” said Cook. The U.S. put up a valiant fight though; iPhone sales grew by 155 percent here in the west.

The news of Apple’s financial success in the market is hardly a surprise given the success that the iPhone 4, the most recent generation of the company’s smartphone, has enjoyed in China.

The device sold out within in a week of launching in October last year, while iPhone FAQ reported that stock in the online store was gone within just 10 hours.

GigaOm rightly pointed out that the opening sales of 300,000 – which included 200,000 pre-orders – reached just 2% of the country’s estimated 3G users, the device’s clear core audience, yet growth since launch has seen iPhone’s smartphone market reach rising from 5% at the beginning of 2010 to around 10% today.

However, as Digital Trends points out, the firm’s “internationally-savvy competitors like Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola continue to dominate sales” within the country’s lucrative 850 million mobile phone user base.

What is clear is that Apple is making strong waves within the world’s largest consumer market. Should the much-rumoured budget iPhone emerge with the launch of the iPhone 5, then Apple could conceivably begin making significant inroads into a market which is likely to see a massive growth in smartphone adoption generated from an influx of affordable devices from said iPhone competitors.

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