Smartone-Vodafone Opens Android ‘Apps Select’ for Hong Kong

Almost double SMV customers choose Android over iPhone apps.

Smartone-Vodafone today announced the launch of their new Apps Select Android app website for the Hong Kong market.

This new Smartone initiative is set to really turbo-charge the already huge Android app market in Hong Kong, by putting a Chinese filter on the entire app downloading experience.

By logging into www.smartone-vodafone.com/apps_select/, Smartone customers can use this website to properly check out new Android apps with Chinese reviews, videos on how the apps work, and a download helper that sends an SMS to your Android handset for you to easily download the app.

Although the Android Market only allows for free app downloads in Hong Kong, this initiative is being fueled by the huge demand Smartone is seeing from its customers.

In today’s press conference, Smartone-Vodafone CEO Mr. Douglas Li shared some impressive statistics on the Hong Kong smartphone scene:

• Strong growth in smartphone sales, increased from 23K in 2007 to 80K in 2009
• Growth of smartphone at the expense of feature phones (sales of feature phones dropped 16% in 2009)
• Smartphone sales increased from 6% in 2007 to 21.7% in 2009 as a percentage of total handset sales
• Growth of smartphone users on SmarTone-Vodafone’s network exceeds 70% in the last 12 months
• 25% of our smartphone users are using either Android or iPhone
• Average monthly growth rate for the past 3 months is more than 50%

Monthly data consumption of Android and iPhone users is roughly the same which is:

• 5 times that of Windows Phone users
• 10 times that of other smartphone users

User behaviour with Android and iPhone devices

• 80% access the Internet
• 60% visit social networking sites
• 65% download from either Android market or App Store

Top 10 sites visited by customers of Smartone:

1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. Facebook
4. YouTube
5. Openrice
6. MSN
7. Uwant
8. Appledaily
9. discuss.com.hk
10. HK Observatory

The biggest piece of information from Mr. Li is that, on average on the Smartone-Vodafone network, 18 Android apps are downloaded compared to 10 iPhone apps each month. This is pretty amazing data since Hong Kong’s iPhone App Store has many free and paid apps with thousands to choose from, and the Android Market only allows for free apps to be downloaded in Hong Kong.

It’s pretty simple to equate the onslaught of HTC Android phones that are available via SMV for the sharp increase in the past 3 months of sales and data transfer, but that Android apps are preferred over iPhone apps is astonishing. What will happen when Google allows the paid apps to enter the HK marketplace we wonder?

It also stands to reason why SMV is the preferred operator in Hong Kong. Good service notwithstanding, they are actually trying to help their customers get the best experience from their handsets. Sure, that helps them in the long-run, but just turn around and see what their competitors are doing in the field.

Another thing we were interested to see is that SMV has free smartphone user workshops at their key stores, to learn how to maximize the use of their Android handsets. Neonpunch readers obviously need no help but, as more of the masses get into smartphone technology, we think this is a huge step in the right direction.

You can find out more about this at the official web site here.