THE number of newly-added mobile phone users in China hit a six-month high in September, which would boost the mobile application sector in the world's biggest cell phone market, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday.

In September, 10.24 million mobile phone users were added, which was also the first time the figure surpassed the 10-million mark since March. China now has more than 830 million mobile phone users. But the fixed-line phone user base fell by 1.07 million in the period, according to the ministry.

In the first nine months, telecommunications revenue grew an annual 6.8 percent to 667.51 billion yuan (US$99.62 billion). The mobile revenue accounted for 69.68 percent of the total revenue, a rise of 3.26 percentage points from the same period last year, the ministry said.

"It's a huge market potential (for mobile applications) because 300 million Chinese people use computers about 3 hours every day and more than 800 million people use handsets 16 hours a day," said Lee Kaifu, founder of Innovation Works, an investment firm.