There will be 380 million handsets shipped in the China market in 2013, growing by 5% from 2012, of which 300 million units will be smartphones, hiking 44%, according to IDC China.

Smartphone shipments in the China market will keep growing to 430 million units in 2016, with the proportion of smartphones to increase from 78.2% in 2013 to 88.3% in 2016, IDC China indicated.

As Qualcomm, MediaTek and other IC design houses have been promoting reference design solutions, dual-core models will take up a large portion of smartphones for sale at below CNY1,000 (US$160). Dual-core models will become the mainstream smartphones in 2013, while high-end models will be equipped with quad-core processors, touch screens over 4.5-inch, 1080p and over 300ppi.

In terms of technology standards, 3G models will remain dominant accounting for 55.6% of smartphones shipped in 2016, while the proportion of 4G models will rise from 11% in 2013 to 42.6% in 2016.

Among operating systems, the market share for Android stood at about 90% in the third quarter of 2012 and will remain the largest over the next five years. Windows Phone 8 is expected to become the third-largest in terms of market share in 2013, next to Android and iOS.

Lowest pricing for smartphone will fall to bellow CNY500 in 2013, down from CNY700 in 2012.