Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market has grown from roughly 8 percent to 19 percent in Q1 2012, with iPhone sales hitting 6.2 million units during the same period.

That's according to a report from Woori Investment and Securities Co. reported by the Yonhap News Agency, which attributes Apple's rapid growth to the January launch of the iPhone 4S.

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The same report shows Samsung as the leading vendor in China - which is now the largest smartphone market in the world - with a 28 percent market share and 9 million units sold in Q1 2012.

These figures directly contradict recent comments from Microsoft's COO for China Michel van der Bel. He recently claimed iPhone held just a 6 percent share of the Chinese market, putting it behind Windows Phone on a 7 percent share.

Woori's figures suggest that Apple's share of the smartphone market is considerably larger than that, although the size of China mean's it's typically a difficult market to evaluate, with figures often varying wildly from one source to the next.

Apple's own figures show that it sold 35.1 million iPhones worldwide in the three-month period ending 31 March 2012. If Woori's numbers are accurate, China is currently generating around 17.7 percent of all iPhone sales.

[source: TheNextWeb]