Android Rises to 90% of Smartphone Market in China

Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital foresaw Android's rise, and wrote an excellent essay about it in early 2011, "The Freight Train That Is Android."[1] His main point: Google is not trying to make a profit on Android; they're trying only to control the key layers between themselves and the consumer, by making these layers free or even <i>less than free</i>, which is a HUGE problem for Android's competitors, who must make a profit.<p>As he put it, "I don’t know if a large organized industry has ever faced this fierce a form of competition – someone who is not trying to 'win' in the classic sense. They want market share, but they don’t need economics. Imagine if Ford were faced with GM paying people to take Chevrolets? How many would they be able to sell? What if you received $0.10 for every free Pepsi you consumed? Would you still pay $1.50 for a Coke?"<p>I highly recommend you read (or re-read) Bill's prescient essay.<p>--<p>[1] <a href="http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-android/" rel="nofollow">http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-train-that-is-an...</a>

Does anyone have insight into any of the following questions?<p>1. Which Chinese Android App marketplaces are the most popular? In other words, if I wanted to target Chinese Android users, which app stores should I focus on submitting my app to?<p>2. Are there any barriers to submitting to such app stores for north american developers? Specifically related to getting paid.<p>3. Which Android mobile ad networks are best (cpm/cpc) for China?<p>Would love to hear any personal experiences working with China's Android Market!

I think it's the people saying that Android is <i>not</i> the Windows of smartphones that will be considered crazy at this point (unlike before when it was the one saying it who who were considered that).

The android phones chinese bought are very cheap(500yuan to 2,000yuan),and they like free app.They can't afford iphones-5,000yuan(it will be stolen).

Interesting that almost none of these devices are shipped with Google Account integration. What does Google get out of this huge market share?

I wonder what the total marketshare that corresponds to is? From what I've read, smartphones are still in a niche in china and they primarily use dumbphones and featurephones.

Where does Analysys International get those stats? Are those the same numbers that Alibaba, Taobao, Google, Amazon, etc are seeing in China?

Google is at same position as Microsoft, both of them are not earning any money from this large market share. Not to mention about rampant piracy of applications there.