This won’t surprise anyone–China is growing quickly, and along with it, its Internet usage. The Internet is one of the most used ways to access information in the country. Last month, the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) announced that more Chinese citizens are accessing the Internet though their phones than the traditional PC setup.
According to the CNNIC, 388 million now access the Internet through their smartphones, compared with 380 million using their desktop computers.
Since China is estimated to have 538 million Internet users, there are many who use both.
There are a couple of reasons why it makes more sense for the Chinese to choose their mobile devices over computers.
. The most important one is that they are often cheaper. Let’s compare two status symbol items that everyone is familiar with. The highest-end iPhone 4S is priced at 6,788 Chinese yuan (about US$1,067) at the Apple store while the 11-inch MacBook Air starts from 7,388 yuan (about US$1,161). So Apple’s most basic computer is more expensive than its best smartphone. Sure, the computer can be used to do a lot more than a mobile phone, but in terms of accessing the Internet, they’re virtually the same.
This, of course, is the most extreme example. In reality, you can get an Internet-enabled smartphone for a lot less than an Apple iPhone.
As manufacturing and development moves westward from China’s coast, the CNNIC has observed that half of new Internet users come from China’s developing rural areas. Significantly, 60 percent use their mobile phones to connect to the Web. This lends weight to the argument that the affordability of such device plays a big part in how people access the Internet–you’d expect salaries to be lower in the western cities.
. Besides being more affordable, smartphones are also more portable. According to the Yangtze Study (PDF link) by the Starcom MediaVest Group last year, the average Chinese person spends 3.25 hours online. In comparison, most Chinese watch an average of 2.21 hours of TV. If people are spending that much time on the Internet, it only makes sense that they would want a device that gives them Web access in more locations. Combined with the fact that major providers, such as China Mobile, offer ridiculously cheap data plans and it’s easy to see why mobile access is so prevalent.
Source: asia.cnet.com (15/08/2012)