The smartphone market in China has seen strong growth lately, marking a rise of more than 30 percent in shipments in 2008 when compared to the previous year. According to a recent report from In-Stat, smartphones accounted for around 15.3 percent of the total shipments of mobile phones in the country last year, compared to the 12 percent in 2007.

“Mobile Internet applications, GPS, and multimedia functionality were the most important drivers,” says Alex Liu, In-Stat analyst. “In the smartphone OS marketplace, Symbian retained its leading position and saw a small share increase in 2008 due to steady growth of Nokia smartphone sales and a drop in Linux smartphone sales.”

The report for In-Stat shows other findings as well, including the fact that smartphone shipments in China are expected to triple by 2013, and that the upcoming such devices are seen to come with lower barriers in what both OS and chipset platform solutions are concerned. According to the research firm, the smartphone market will grow courtesy of free and complete operating systems from OHA and the Symbian Foundation.

The In-Stats research, dubbed “Lower Barriers to Entry Will Drive China’s Smartphone Market,” is focused on the smartphone market in China, and covers a series of areas like the examination of the smartphone value chain, or the analysis of chipset market trends. In addition, the research also takes into consideration the trends in the smartphone operating system market, and it includes an analysis of the performance of platforms like Symbian, Google Android, OMS, and Windows Mobile.

The examination of market drivers and barriers in China and previsions for the smartphone market in the country with unit sales until 2013 are other points the research firm takes into consideration in its report. Those who would like to learn more on the research and receive a free sample of the report can find additional details on the firm's website.