6 ms·

China Now Leads the World in New iOS and Android Device Activations

33 points by kopsai 15y ago

mromanuk 15y ago
I should consider translating my game to Mandarin :)
- zht 15y ago
  Or even better Simplified Chinese which people of all Chinese dialects on the mainland can read.
  - pixelcort 15y ago
    From my understanding, Mandarin is a spoken dialect and there is no such thing as "written Mandarin." Simplified Chinese is one of two common written forms of Chinese.
    - newsoundwave 15y ago
      That's basically correct, although there are certain phrases and grammatical patterns that don't quite match up in Mandarin/Cantonese - most will try to avoid those.
    - zht 15y ago
      That's what I was getting at
edwinnathaniel 15y ago
Will this also increase the piracy number of paid apps? One segment of the app market that will definitely rise to a new level is online game that support virtual currency. I know many people in Asia (not just in China) are not shy to open their wallet for virtual items but still resort to piracy when it comes to regular games (NFS on iPod/iPad, etc) and apps. There are businesses in Asia that specialized in jail-breaking your devices and stock them with pirated software and the service is dirt cheap. Imagine the following scenario: you bring your newly bought iPod/iPad to a store, you pick 10 games for $3 bucks total (numbers are there for illustrative purpose), you leave your devices there for 1 hour or so while mommy goes shopping, come back and have everything there!
- beatle 15y ago
  There are two types of consumers. -People who are willing to spend a lot of money on a device they love (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch) will spend money on apps. -People who got their 2nd-rate, poorly built device (most android devices) for free from their carrier or for $50 from a flea market. They are not going to spend money on apps and are most likely to pirate apps/content.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
    - beatle 15y ago
      >they're free. but you didn't pirate the apps. my point exactly.
    - ghshephard 15y ago
      Feature phones show less uptake of apps. It's a rare iPhone user that hasn't purchased a dozen or so apps in a year. I'm sure they exist - but there's a lot more of us who've purchased 30 or more apps to balance them out.
  - huggyface 15y ago
    There are two types of consumers. There are two types of commentators- -People who naively bisect a hugely complex, graduated marketplace -People who understand it's far more involved than that. Seriously, though, I think it's a bit perverse to see all of the proud boasting about the spend of iOS owners -- it often amounts to less than $100 per user, where $2.99 is considered an expensive app. Is this really the future that developers were hoping for? Dancing for pennies, hoping to be that incredibly rare break-out viral hit?
    - beatle 15y ago
      let me guess. you're a web developer threatened by the explosion of apps on mobile devices?
nextparadigms 15y ago
This will increase Android's lead over iOS. Samsung's lead is over 3x bigger than Apple's in China, and it keeps growing. Apple only has about 7% market share there.
- beatle 15y ago
  plenty of room for growth.
- Zirro 15y ago
  There's more to the word "lead" than market-share. Apple makes a much larger profit for each phone sold compared to other companies.
  - usaar333 15y ago
    For a platform the third party ecosystem is super important. That is most affected by # of users * how much each tends to pay. iPhone uses tend to be willing to pay more than Android users, but at some point the sheer number of Android users can make Android win out.
- Steko 15y ago
  What we've seen in the US is that Android's market share lead eroded as the iPhone became available on more carriers. You may expect that trend to continue as they fill out tiers they aren't competing on. Considering that not being on China Mobile in China is the equivalent in the US of being exclusive with Sprint... you'd imagine the same thing will happen in China once "the new iPhone" comes out with China Mobile. Which isn't to say Apple will win China's market share, they'll probably still trail but their disadvantage is less then you're suggesting here except in the short term. [edit] Even in the short term I doubt it's accurate because iPhone just launched on China Telecom in the last two weeks so that effect has yet to be fully seen. [/edit]
  - usaar333 15y ago
    That's really not true. Here's the graph: http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/09/ios-marketshare-up-from-26-in-q3-to-43-in-octnov-2011/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/09/ios-marketshare-up-from-26-... The iPhone started selling on Verizon in Q1. There was a small dip in relative Android sales, but not many. The only time the iPhone came close to Android in sales was Q4 2011 after nearly 1.3 years of pent up demand for an upgrade. Edit: Looking at graph again, in Q1 2011 android:iphone sales ratio significantly decreased. Android went from a 2.5:1 to just under 2:1 In China, a poorer country, I'd suspect Apple will never come close due to its large premium over medium-end Android devices.
misterhaywood 15y ago
duh.

33 points by kopsai 15y ago

mromanuk 15y ago

I should consider translating my game to Mandarin :)

zht 15y ago
Or even better Simplified Chinese which people of all Chinese dialects on the mainland can read.
- pixelcort 15y ago
  From my understanding, Mandarin is a spoken dialect and there is no such thing as "written Mandarin." Simplified Chinese is one of two common written forms of Chinese.
  - newsoundwave 15y ago
    That's basically correct, although there are certain phrases and grammatical patterns that don't quite match up in Mandarin/Cantonese - most will try to avoid those.
  - zht 15y ago
    That's what I was getting at

edwinnathaniel 15y ago

Will this also increase the piracy number of paid apps? One segment of the app market that will definitely rise to a new level is online game that support virtual currency. I know many people in Asia (not just in China) are not shy to open their wallet for virtual items but still resort to piracy when it comes to regular games (NFS on iPod/iPad, etc) and apps. There are businesses in Asia that specialized in jail-breaking your devices and stock them with pirated software and the service is dirt cheap. Imagine the following scenario: you bring your newly bought iPod/iPad to a store, you pick 10 games for $3 bucks total (numbers are there for illustrative purpose), you leave your devices there for 1 hour or so while mommy goes shopping, come back and have everything there!

beatle 15y ago
There are two types of consumers. -People who are willing to spend a lot of money on a device they love (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch) will spend money on apps. -People who got their 2nd-rate, poorly built device (most android devices) for free from their carrier or for $50 from a flea market. They are not going to spend money on apps and are most likely to pirate apps/content.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
  - beatle 15y ago
    >they're free. but you didn't pirate the apps. my point exactly.
  - ghshephard 15y ago
    Feature phones show less uptake of apps. It's a rare iPhone user that hasn't purchased a dozen or so apps in a year. I'm sure they exist - but there's a lot more of us who've purchased 30 or more apps to balance them out.
- huggyface 15y ago
  There are two types of consumers. There are two types of commentators- -People who naively bisect a hugely complex, graduated marketplace -People who understand it's far more involved than that. Seriously, though, I think it's a bit perverse to see all of the proud boasting about the spend of iOS owners -- it often amounts to less than $100 per user, where $2.99 is considered an expensive app. Is this really the future that developers were hoping for? Dancing for pennies, hoping to be that incredibly rare break-out viral hit?
  - beatle 15y ago
    let me guess. you're a web developer threatened by the explosion of apps on mobile devices?

nextparadigms 15y ago

This will increase Android's lead over iOS. Samsung's lead is over 3x bigger than Apple's in China, and it keeps growing. Apple only has about 7% market share there.

beatle 15y ago
plenty of room for growth.
Zirro 15y ago
There's more to the word "lead" than market-share. Apple makes a much larger profit for each phone sold compared to other companies.
- usaar333 15y ago
  For a platform the third party ecosystem is super important. That is most affected by # of users * how much each tends to pay. iPhone uses tend to be willing to pay more than Android users, but at some point the sheer number of Android users can make Android win out.
Steko 15y ago
What we've seen in the US is that Android's market share lead eroded as the iPhone became available on more carriers. You may expect that trend to continue as they fill out tiers they aren't competing on. Considering that not being on China Mobile in China is the equivalent in the US of being exclusive with Sprint... you'd imagine the same thing will happen in China once "the new iPhone" comes out with China Mobile. Which isn't to say Apple will win China's market share, they'll probably still trail but their disadvantage is less then you're suggesting here except in the short term. [edit] Even in the short term I doubt it's accurate because iPhone just launched on China Telecom in the last two weeks so that effect has yet to be fully seen. [/edit]
- usaar333 15y ago
  That's really not true. Here's the graph: http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/09/ios-marketshare-up-from-26-in-q3-to-43-in-octnov-2011/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/09/ios-marketshare-up-from-26-... The iPhone started selling on Verizon in Q1. There was a small dip in relative Android sales, but not many. The only time the iPhone came close to Android in sales was Q4 2011 after nearly 1.3 years of pent up demand for an upgrade. Edit: Looking at graph again, in Q1 2011 android:iphone sales ratio significantly decreased. Android went from a 2.5:1 to just under 2:1 In China, a poorer country, I'd suspect Apple will never come close due to its large premium over medium-end Android devices.

misterhaywood 15y ago

duh.