Lenovo has leveraged its strong distribution networks and close relationships with Chinese mobile carriers to rapidly expand its share of China’s smartphone market and hopes to surpass Samsung in 2013.

Our survey results show that intensifying competition has eroded the popularity of Apple’s iPhone in China in recent quarters and is likely to result in slower but still strong sales growth in FY13.

Strong sales of low-cost, subsidised smartphones has driven strong growth for Chinese handset maker ZTE, but growing scale has come at the expense of shrinking margins.

The success of its high-end smartphone models has driven strong growth for Samsung in China, but intense competition from lower-priced domestic rivals threatens to erode its market share.

Sales of lower-cost domestic smartphones have soared over the past year. However, home-grown manufacturers are still struggling to move up the value chain, as evidenced by their continued weak performance in our quarterly surveys of over 1,000 sophisticated urban consumers, enabling multinational brands to continue to dominate the high-end market.

Efforts by Huawei and ZTE (000063:SZ), two Chinese telecommunication equipment manufacturers, to break into the American market have hit an obstacle in the form of a draft report from a US congressional committee labelling the companies as threats to US security, who should be restricted from doing business in the country. The report also recommends that any mergers or acquisitions involving the companies be probed. Given the impending US presidential election, the move has been viewed with suspicion in China as being less to do with Chinese companies conforming to specific American legislation and more to do with the universally opportunistic nature of politicians. 

China Telecom’s continued pursuit of 3G market share through aggressive subsidies will dampen the company’s bottom-line throughout 2012

Strong spending by data-hungry smartphone users has given China Unicom the edge in the 3G battle, but margins remain under pressure