Samsung Electronics Co. was ranked 1st among smartphone brands during the first half of 2012 with 20.8 percent in shares, according to a report from IHS. The brand was followed by two Chinese enterprises: Lenovo and Coolpad.

Famous smartphone brand Apple only made it to a 7th place, with 7.5 percent in shares, due to the shortage of low-end smartphone products as well as a lack of compliance with domestic TD-SCDMA standards.

"Among all the international smartphone brands competing in China, Apple is the only one not offering a product that complies with the domestic TD-SCDMA air standard," Director of China electronics research at IHS Kevin Wang, said, "For Apple, this is a huge disadvantage."

China has the world's largest smartphone market and 160 million smartphones are expected to be sold by the end of 2012, up a staggering 141 percent from 67 million in 2011, according to the report.

About 40 percent of the smartphones sold in China last year were selling for less than US$200, according to the IDC survey. Domestic brands Lenovo, Coolpad, Huawei and ZTE performed very well due to their price advantages.

   Goinee

Goinee [nipic.com]

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