China is closing in on the 1 billion mobile connections mark, which it will likely surpass before the end of March, according to new research.
The findings, from Wireless Intelligence report, indicates that China is poised to grow further as its huge population is now embracing mobile data services.
By comparison, wireless trade organization CTIA reported that in June the U.S. had 322.9 million connections, which already exceeds the U.S. population. According to China’s last census, its population numbered 1.3 billion, which means it still has plenty of room to grow.
The figures also mark a shift towards smartphone adoption. China has long been the largest single market for subscriber growth, but that growth was mainly driven by low-end devices and voice services.
Now that all three of China’s major operators — China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom – have launched 3G networks, smartphones and other mobile data devices are proliferating.
3G connections surpassed 200 million at the end of 2011, which is still only a fifth of China’s total subscribers, but 3G devices account for 80 percent of all new sales, according to the report.
Demand for smartphones is huge, as evidenced by the unruly crowds that formed at Apple’s stores last week for the launch of the iPhone 4S with China Unicom.
