Android kills in China: now owns 90% of the smartphone market

Android is absolutely dominating the Chinese smartphone market, claiming just over 90% of it.

The scary thing is that the figure may actually be a little low because it doesn’t take into account all the country’s knock-off phones, many of which run the Google-owned operating system.

The stats, which come courtesy of Analysis International, show that iOS has dropped from six percent to 4.2%. That number may however rise as the iPhone 5 makes its way into the country.

Reflecting its fall worldwide, Nokia’s Symbian has fallen from a market share of nearly 32% in the second quarter of 2011 to around 2.4% today. The chances of a resurgence there are negligible given that Nokia has more or less given up on the platform.

Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Linux OS meanwhile make up negligible percentages of the market.

The proliferation of cheap devices is, to a large degree, what has allowed Android to dominate so thoroughly in China and leapfrog Apple.

While the average price of Android phones has fallen steadily over the past year or so (it sits at around US$222), the average price of an iOS phone has also fallen but still costs over three times as much as the average Android at US$726.

While you’d think that the execs at Google would be whooping with delight at how well its OS is doing in the country, it’s worth bearing in mind that many of the tech giant’s services are blocked in China.

That’s why local operators such as Baidu and Alibaba have been able to successfully build platforms that run on top of Android.

The latter has even threatened to build its own OS, which got it and Acer into trouble with Google.

As more and more people leap onto Android, expect it to get even closer to a full monopoly. Just don’t expect it to give Google any more kudos in the country.

Translated charts courtesy of Tech in Asia.