WALK around any Chinese city and one of the most common sights you will see are people chatting into cellphones or busy focusing on their handsets, often to the exclusion of all else.
　　Whether it be updating a status on the microblogging site Sina Weibo, or simply sending a text message to a friend through the online messaging service Tencent QQ, smartphones have now become far more than an accessory – they are now a necessity.
　　Making a choice
　　 As the sun sets over the busy Xidan shopping area of Beijing, two friends, 28-year-old Li Jiang and 24-yearold American Corey McCullough, both employees at a marketing firm, argue about which smartphone can better serve their technological needs.
　　“For me, an iPhone is a necessity. It can do any- thing that I want with a click of a button. I bought my iPhone 4S for around $1,000, almost two months of my salary, but it was worth every cent,” beamed Li as he talked through his latest applications.
　　However, McCullough has rebuked the wonders of Apple and Nokia and has purchased a Chinese made Huawei Titan Android u8800 for $280.“This phone does everything that I need, and it cost a fraction of the price of an iPhone or HTC. Chinese smartphones are not only a cheaper alternative, but they are also practical as they can be fixed at any store,” he added, leading into an intense debate with his colleague.
　　As more and more people are becoming dependent on smartphones to aid their daily lives, a battle has commenced between homegrown and imported devices for the heart of the Chinese smartphone market.
　　Talking figures
　　 China has overtaken the united States in becoming the largest mobile phone market in the world. The nation currently has over 952 million mobile phone users. Global brands such as Apple, Nokia, Blackberry and HTC have seen their sales skyrocket in recent years. According to research done by Strategy Analytics, in the last quarter of 2011, smartphone shipments rose to a record 24 million units. In the united States, however, shipments fell 7 percent sequentially to 23.3 million units.
　　“China’s rapid growth has been driven by an increasing availability of smartphones in retail channels, aggressive subsidizing by operators of high-end models like the Apple iPhone, and an emerging wave of low-cost Android models from local Chinese brands such as ZTE. Nokia currently leads China’s smartphone market with 28 percent share, while HTC leads the u.S. smartphone market with 24 percent share,” said Tom Kang, Director at Strategy Analytics, in a recent interview.
　　Despite this growth, top imported brands are facing fierce competition from Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE, who have recently launched an assault on this industry by developing top of the range smartphones at affordable prices.
　　This danger has already sent ripples through the phone world as Apple’s market share fell to 7.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, from 10.4 percent in the previous three months, while Huawei’s share rose to 12.6 percent, and ZTE kept a close pace with 11.1 percent share. However, Samsung had displaced?Nokia?as the top smartphone vendor in China during the fourth quarter.
　　Shift to homegrown
　　 Lei Lei, a 31-year-old native of Beijing, has observed the changes in smartphone trends from his electronics stall in the Zhongguancun area of the city, a place dubbed “China’s Silicon Valley.”
　　“One thing you have to understand is that Chinese culture is one that is built on the notion of‘face.’ Image is everything, so someone that earns 2,000 yuan ($317) a month will happily spent three months of his or her salary on a brand new iPhone 4S, only because they want people to know that they can financially afford it, when that isn’t the case,” Lei told ChinAfrica.
　　“Chinese brands are far better than what they used to be. I have seen more people pass through my store looking for Chinese smartphones, Chinese and foreigners alike. They are just as good, and much cheaper [than foreign brands],” said Lei.
　　This change in taste has already become the driving force of two of China’s biggest phone companies, the aforementioned Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. Analysts have stated that their aim has been to shift away from making basic feature phones to steadily develop their smartphones, as this sector has grown strong and profit margins have become bigger. The companies’handsets now run on Google’s Android operating system, making them a threat to the well-known foreign brands.
　　The two companies have sold a combined 35 million smartphones in 2011, which is around 7 percent of the global market. This number is said to continue to rise to 90 million in 2012, doubling their market share to 14 percent.
　　Africa calling
　　 Chinese companies are now eyeing the potential of the African market, which has seen its mobile users number rise to over 500 million in 2011.
　　“The African market used to be home to Mediatek feature phones, but now the consumers are looking for a similar experience on the smartphone as those in Western, mature markets. ZTE, Huawei and Mediatek have a pretty good market opportunity in Africa because carriers need a cheap version for this market,” said C.K. Lu, an analyst at the global research institute Gartner, in a recent interview with FT Tilt.
　　Jean-Luc Witele, a 34-year-old native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is one businessman who has identified the need for Chinese smartphones in Africa. Having originally set up a clothing export business in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong Province, in 2004, he expanded into electronics in 2009, and now has bases in Guangzhou, Beijing, Yiwu of Zhejiang Province, and his native Kinshasa.
　　“Importing smartphones from China has become one of my most successful ventures. People in Africa cannot readily find the global smartphone brands, so it is up to Africans like me, who depend on the trade between China and Africa, to give the people what they want.
　　“Phones such as Huawei’s Titan and G7010 are selling like hotcakes back home, and it is a matter of time until people in Africa will look to Chinese smartphones first,” Witele told ChinAfrica.