Apple increased its share of the Chinese smartphone market to 7% in the last quarter of 2013 on the back of demand for its flagship iPhone 5s handset. However, that was only good for fifth place in the competitive market.
According to the latest statistics from market research firm IDC, Apple’s smartphone marketshare in China grew one percent quarter-to-quarter in the last three months of 2013, making it the fifth-largest handset vendor in the country, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Those numbers do NOT include sales from the world’s largest wireless provider, China Mobile. That partnership was officially announced in December.
Samsung once again grabbed the top spot in the Chinese market, with its various flavors of Android smartphones grabbing a 19% share of sales. Lenovo was second with 13%, Coolpad took third with 11%, and Huawei grabbed 10% to round out the top 4 ahead of Apple.
Chinese phone maker Xiaomi took 6% of the market, a surprise considering the company launched its first handset just a few years ago.
China figures to be an important region for Apple’s continued growth. The company’s income from the region in the fiscal first quarter of 2014 amounted to more than $8.4 billion, up 29% from the previous year.
