You constantly hear app developers talking about how they’re trying to crack the American market, but if current trends hold then it may be Chinese users who everyone will want to woo in the near future. According to a new Flurry report, China has now surpassed the US as the nation with the greatest percentage of new device activations (24 percent vs 21 percent). Furthermore, new device adoption in China is growing at a very fast clip, while smartphone sales seem to go through peaks and valleys in the US.
You constantly hear app developers talking about how they’re trying to crack the American market, but if current trends hold then it may be Chinese users who everyone will want to woo in the near future. According to a new Flurry report, China has now surpassed the US as the nation with the greatest percentage of new device activations (24 percent vs 21 percent). Furthermore, new device adoption in China is growing at a very fast clip, while smartphone sales seem to go through peaks and valleys in the US.
The primary driver of phone sales is China’s emerging middle class. The country’s explosive growth has led to enhanced prosperity for many citizens, and large segments of the population are suddenly finding themselves with enough disposable income to upgrade to iPhones, Androids and more. App usage alone in China has skyrocketed over 1100 percent form this time last year, and it seems that this population of over a billion people has quite the appetite for fancy phones.
At this point the tide hasn’t completely shifted, as US users still account for the plurality of overall app usage, but the number is shrinking fast. In the first quarter of 2011 56 percent of all app sessions were conducted in the States, but over the same period this year that number has dropped to 46 percent. It would seem that the worldwide demand is just so voracious that even as the US market continues to grow the rest of the world is simply growing even faster. Overall, this is great news for mobile developers as their potential audience is getting bigger every year, and those apps with genuine regional or worldwide appeal stand to make a mint.
