China crossed the 700 million smartphone users in 2013: Report

Smartphone users in China alone crossed the 700 million mark in 2013, according to a report by Umeng, app analytics firm. According to The Next Web reports, China had around 380m smartphone and tablet users in the first quarter alone.

Chinese consumers have been well known to favor low-cost Android-based smartphones and tablets. Umeng reveals that the market for budget Android devices is strong and almost 57 percent of devices in its report cost below the $330 price range.

27 percent of the users were noted using high-end Android devices costing upwards of $500 and of these, 80 percent of them used an iPhone.

Umeng also revealed that there was a significant decline of users using jailbroken iPhones from 30 percent to 13 percent. The reason of the decline given was that domestic users were being hesitant to do jailbreak their devices.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, the firm also noted that Samsung, and Xiaomi (a Chinese Android smartphone manufacturer) were in the top 10 list. Others smartphone brands include Lenovo, Huawei, HTC, Coolpad, OPPO, ZTE, BBK and Sony.

Social networking, games and news apps were the main reasons of smartphone use and upgrades that drove the increased percentage.