China has leapfrogged U.S. to be the world’s largest smartphone market by volume, according to latest Q3 figures released by Strategy Analytics. Around 24 million smartphones were shipped to operators and retailers in China last quarter as opposed to 23 million units shipped in the U.S. market. China shipments grew by 58% while the U.S. shipments fell by 7% quarter-over-quarter, according to the report. [] The growing Chinese demand is an indicator of where mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple (NYSE:AAPL), Samsung, Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) and others will be seeing most of their sales growth in the coming years.
Nokia had the largest share of the market, ahead of both Samsung and Apple. However, we believe that since China Unicom (NYSE:CHU) is the only carrier that sells the iPhone in China currently, Apple sees a greater potential for growth in this market as it adds more carriers to the fold.
We maintain a price estimate of $502 for the Apple stock, which is about 35% above market price.
Source:trefis.com