BEIJING - Chinese shipments of smartphones totaled 224 million units in 2012, making the country the world's largest smartphone producer, official data showed Wednesday.

In 2012, over 730,000 Chinese apps were launched on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platforms, and the number of apps in China Mobile's online Mobile Market approached 150,000, according to a statement from the China Academy of Telecommunication Research under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Beijing-based research firm Analysys International predicted that China's mobile Internet market will reach 429.6 billion yuan ($68.19 billion) in 2015.

China added 50.9 million Internet users in 2012, bringing the total to 564 million at the end of last year, according to data released Tuesday by the China Internet Network Information Center.

The number of mobile Internet users increased 18.1 percent to 420 million, with mobile phones becoming the primary channel for using the Internet in China.

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