Apple falls to 4th place in the Chinese smartphone race

Slipping in a market Tim Cook identified as "an area of enormous opportunity" 

Thousands lined up for the iPhone 4S in Hong Kong. Image: Andrew Leyden.

There's a nugget of unanchored news in a report Reuters filed Friday.

"In the third quarter," wrote Lee Chyen Yee, "Huawei overtook Apple as the No.3 smartphone vendor in China."

Without identifying its source or specifying market shares, Reuters reported that Apple (AAPL) now trails Nokia (NOK), Samsung and Huawei, companies it characterized as more "nimble" and "flexible" than Apple.

"Nimble" is not what I would call Nokia, but it's true that Apple's failure to strike a deal with China Mobile (CHL), the world's largest mobile carrier (600 million subscribers), has hurt it.

When asked about China during Apple's most recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook marveled at the scope of Apple's opportunity:

"In my lifetime," he said, "I've never seen a country with as many people rising into the middle class that aspire to buy products that Apple makes... The sky is the limit there."

He talked about how quickly China has risen to No. 2 in Apple's list of top revenue-producing countries. He talked about the investments the company has made in China. About the Chinese language online store it launched last year. About the six stores it opened in Greater China and the dozens more it wants to build. About its 200 mono-branded stores and its 7,000 points of sales.

But not one word about why Apple decided not to build an iPhone that could run on China Mobile's proprietary TD-SCDMA network -- and by so doing crack open an addressable market nearly three times the size of Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) combined.

Posted in: Apple, China, China Mobile, Huawei, iPhone, Mobile, Nokia, Samsung, Tim Cook

• Exclusive: Huawei employees ask U.S. for right to compete

  The fast-growing gear maker has been thwarted in the U.S. by national security concerns. Now, employees are rallying on behalf of the company.

  FORTUNE -- Earlier this year Fortune chronicled China-based telecom equipment maker Huawei's efforts to win private contracts in the United States. Thus far the fast-growing gear maker, which last year had sales of $27 billion, has been thwarted by national security concerns.

  Now FORTUNE has learned that external relations MORE

  Stephanie N. Mehta, Executive Editor - Dec 2, 2011 3:10 PM ET
  Posted in: China, Huawei, Telecommunications

• What makes China telecom Huawei so scary?

  It could soon be the world's biggest maker of network gear, but Huawei still can't conquer the U.S. The reason? Widespread fear that it's here to spy for Beijing.

  By Sheridan Prasso, contributor

  FORTUNE -- Huawei, the world's second-largest supplier of telecom and Internet gear, has little trouble garnering business around the globe. The Chinese company has customers in 130 countries, sells equipment to 45 of the world's top 50 telcos, and MORE

  Jul 28, 2011 5:00 AM ET
  Posted in: China, Huawei, internet gear, network equipment, networks, Ren Zhengfei, telecom gear, telecoms, William Plummer

• Gartner: iPhone Q1 sales were "remarkable," considering

  Despite higher prices, sales to end users worldwide more than doubled

  Data: Gartner. Charts: Apple 2.0

  Gartner issued its "mobile devices" report for the first quarter of 2011, two weeks after rival IDC's.

  Here's what Gartner had to say about Apple (AAPL):

  Apple sold 16.9 million units to end users worldwide, more than doubling its sales of iPhones year-on-year. This market-beating growth came from all regions: the iPhone is now available in 90 MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 19, 2011 11:21 AM ET
  Posted in: Android, Apple, Gartner, Google, HTC, Huawei, IDC, International Data Corporation, iOS, iPhone, Microsoft, Mtorola, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, ZTE