International Data Corporation (IDC), a US-based technology research firm, has predicted that China will beat US in terms of smartphone sales this year to be the biggest smartphone market, reports AFP. IDC has come to the conclusion as smartphone shipments to China in the second-half of 2011 surpassed the US shipments.

According to IDC figures,China will account for 20.7 percent or almost 137 million units of the global smartphone market in 2012 compared to US share of 20.6 percent. In 2011, China’s share of global smartphone market was 18.2 percent while US had a share of 21.3 percent.

IDC is estimating about 660 million smartphones shipments in 2012.

“(China) smartphone shipments are expected to take a slim lead over the US in 2012 before the gap widens in the coming years,” said Wong Teck Zhung, who works as regional senior market analyst at IDC. “There will be no turning back this leadership changeover.”

As per IDC data, smartphone shipments in China and other emerging markets such as India and Brazil are on the rise due to Android running handsets.

“A lot of the Android models in China are priced competitively,” said Melissa Chau, regional research manager at IDC. “That is actually driving the huge growth.”

China Smartphone Market gearing to be the largest in the world