Beijing: Over 200 million smartphones were sold in China during the first half of 2014, an increase of over 20 percent compared to the same period in 2013, a top official said.
The sale accounts for 87 percent of total mobile phone output, chief engineer at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Zhang Feng said Thursday.
Consumption of information products and services topped 1.35 trillion yuan (USD 218 billion) in the 1H, up 20 percent from the year earlier, he said.
During the same period, e-commerce transactions expanded 26.7 percent year on year, while online sales witnessed one third growth, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Zhang also added increasing penetration of more mobile internet applications was seen in the financial, transportation and medical sectors than in the entertainment domain.
Mobile data traffic rose 52.1 percent year on year January-June while revenue generated on that rose 46.4 percent, he said.
Regarding the booming 4G business in China, Zhang said China Telecom and China Unicom are experimenting with mixed-mode networks in 16 Chinese cities and more commercial 4G licenses can be expected.
China's 4G users topped 13.97 million by the end of June, seven months after 4G licenses were issued to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.
The country had 471 million 3G users in June.
Information products and services comprises of IT hardware and software concerned with spreading information.
Smartphones are a major part of this sector.
