In China, the world's largest mobile phone market, smartphone sales for Q3 grew 11.3 percent quarter-over-quarter, reports CCID Consulting. However, Linux's share of the market declined, largely due to weakening volumes for Motorola smartphones, the Hong Kong-based market research firm reported.

CCID Consulting, China's leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: HK08235), recently released its article on China's Linux market, which grew by 29.2% and has great prospects for its new Linux Desktop.

Linux's market value in China is growing, according to CCID Consulting, owing to growing approval from government, finance, telecoms and post services. Linux is also making inroads to the desktop in China, mostly from smaller PC manufacturers. In addition, mobile devices are a widening market for Linux.

Desktop Linux market share had a growth of about 50% last year according to the recent data by NetMarketShare. If we look at the data for year 2010, there was no growth at all. However, in 2011, starting from 0.96% market share in February, desktop Linux market share ended at 1.41%.

The commercial Linux market in China has seen sales value increase 22.6 per cent over the past year, according to new research.

Linux has been riding on a wave in China, topping the growth of all operating systems in the first quarter of 2007, says an industry analyst.

Novell has signed a cooperation agreement with China Standard Software Company (CS2C), the leading Linux firm in China. The two companies will promote the development and adoption of Linux in the country, and combine resources on distribution of technology and services for the Chinese market.

In the North American market for POS (point of sales/service) terminals, Linux grew 32 percent year-over-year, according to figures released by IHL Group. The research firm reckons Linux accounted for $475 million of the $5.56 billion market, putting it third overall with an 8.5 percent market share.

Novell Inc. and Microsoft Corp., trying to expand the reach of their unusual alliance, say they plan to put a bigger emphasis on the Chinese market. The companies say they will make an extra investment to sell more support subscriptions for Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system in China.