India first reported to be ahead in CDMA mobile customers in December 2006, but due to a re-verification procedure the number of users dropped behind China. Recently in June 2007 the number of users crept above China and now India has a decisive lead over China by more than 7.8 million users.
As for total mobile users as of July 2007, China is the largest mobile market in the world with 491 million subscribers to India's 189 million. However India’s pace of mobile phone adoption exceeds the Chinese market. What’s most amazing to me is that India added an astonishing 12.4 million users in July. This by far is the highest figure for monthly net additions ever recorded anywhere in the world. Why the sudden jump is the question that needs to be answered. Knowing India, it’s probably a fluke counting error or someone has changed the definition of “mobile user”. However, if this jump is valid, get ready you may want to start investing in mobile related stocks in India.
In the last year, India has gained a staggering 78.2 million new users while China claims an almost equal 76.8 million. In balanced terms however, India far ahead, recording a proportionate annual customer growth rate of 70.3% to the end of July, compared to China's 18.5%. There are no signs of a growth slow down and with internet adoption at a much slower pace, business opportunities for mobile will be higher in the short term.
Data and Graph Source: The Mobile World Briefing, the weekly newsletter from The Mobile World
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