IPhone struggles to gain ground in China

Apple may be ecstatic about the landmark $1 billion patent war it won against Samsung, but a recent report shows that Apple is a lightweight contender in a much more crucial battleground.
Apple's share of the Chinese smartphone market was just a measly 7.5% during the first half of 2012, according to IHS iSuppli. That put the company in seventh place, behind Samsung (No. 1), Nokia (NOK) (No. 5) and a host of native brands, including Lenovo, Coolpad, Huawei and ZTE.



That's not a position Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) is accustomed to -- in nearly every other region of the world where it sells iPhones, Apple is in either first or second place.

Seventh certainly not where the company wants to be in the critical Chinese market. China is set to become the largest smartphone market in the world later this year, after more than doubling the number of devices sold in 2011, IHS iSuppli says.

If Apple wants to grab a larger slice of that rapidly growing pie, it may have to make some concessions to Chinese consumers.