The iPhone remained the favorite mobile phone brand among users, with a 21.2% “attention rate” (the percentage of search queries for a certain brand across all mobile phone-related search queries), up 1.2pp QoQ. Samsung (15.8%, up 0.2pp) overtook Nokia (14.6%, down 1.8pp) to become the second most searched-for mobile phone brand among Chinese users. Although overseas brands continued to fill the 3 most favored mobile phone brands, there were five Chinese domestic brands which managed to enter the top 10, including Xiaomi (8.5%, up 2.1pp), Lenovo (4.7%, up 0.9pp), Huawei (3.2%, up 0.3pp), ZTE (2.7%, up 0.1pp) and Meizu (2.3%, up 0.7pp).
In terms of the most popular mobile phone models, Apple took all top 3 positions with its iPhone4S (representing an 8.4% attention rate), iPhone5 (7.6%) and iPhone4 (3.7%). Samsung captured positions 4 to 6. Its I9300, I9100 and N7100 saw attention rates of 3.2%, 3.0% and 2.3% in 4Q12, respectively. The next four positions in the top 10 were shared by the Xiaomi M2 (2.2%), Lenovo K860 (1.9%), Nokia 5230 (1.8%) and HTC One X (1.0%).
SmartPhone OS in China
Android and iOS continued to extend their dominance as the two leading smartphone operating systems, representing a 56.3% (up 1.5pp QoQ) and 21.9% (up 1.4pp) attention rate in 4Q12, respectively. Symbian lost 3pp QoQ with a diminished 14.2% attention rate.