New figures from Chinese research firm CCID Consulting reveal that mobile handset giants Nokia and Motorola account for almost 90 percent of China’s smartphone market. The study found that Chinese smartphones reached 7.47 million units by third-quarter 2008, a 0.6 percent increase over the previous quarter, while revenue from smartphone sales rose 4.5 percent to CNY18.17 billion (US$2.7 billion) over the same period. The firm said that smartphones accounted for 19.3 percent of total mobile sales in China in Q3, a rise of 0.7 percent over Q2.

The study found that Nokia was the largest Chinese smartphone brand with a 69.3 percent market share, followed by Motorola on 19.9 percent, and forecast that the two vendors would eventually surpass 90 percent. The firm said that the success of Nokia was driven by its ability to offer smartphones at a range of price-points – from low-end to high-end – and added that a fall in average selling prices had allowed smartphones to penetrate the mainstream market. Motorola was also thought to be building its smartphone market share by targeting the mid-range sector. Other vendors in the Chinese smartphone market included Dopod (4.7 percent market share), Samsung (2.5 percent), Coolpad (1.2 percent) and Sony Ericsson (0.9 percent), the study said.