Mainland now has over 519mn smartphone users, research shows

Mainland China now has well over half a billion active smartphone users, Tech in Asia reported, citing data from market research company Emarketer. The research predicts that the latest estimate of 519.7 million smartphone users will rise to 574.2 million by 2015, representing half of all mobile phone users in the country. Baidu previously estimated that as of the second quarter this year there were 386 million active Android users on the mainland. Android’s dominance in China is likely due in no small part to the availability of low-cost smartphones, particularly from local brands like Xiaomi, Coolpad and Huawei, that run Google’s OS.