SEOUL, KOREA - A group of Chinese smartphone makers visited Samsung Electronics' Hwaseong memory chip plant. Amid an explosive growth of China's smartphone market, the supply of mobile DRAMs, a core part of smartphones, is falling far short of demand. Against this backdrop, the Chinese smartphone makers are in a hurry to check the current state of their major supplier Samsung.
In the third quarter of 2012, as many as 23.9 million units of smartphones were sold in China. Since then, China has emerged as the world's largest smartphone market, overtaking the United States (23.3 million units).
The popularization of smartphones is accelerating in China as a group of Chinese companies, including Xiaomi, are releasing popular type-models at a price of 1,999 yuan (US$325). Chinese companies' exports of low-priced smartphones are also on a steep rise. China's major smartphone makers such as Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei, and Xiaomi, are taking steps to expand their output
Lenovo recently announced a plan to overtake Samsung within the next two years, aimed at becoming the largest smartphone maker in China. It plans to sell 60 million units of smartphones this year, a more than two-fold jump from 23.5 million units a year ago. ZTE also aims to more than double its smartphone shipments this year.
