iPhone is currently in seventh place in China

Although Apple is accustomed to being the smartphone king, but in China, the iPhone is barely even an also-ran. The iPhone is currently in seventh place in China, according to research firm Canalys. That means Apple is missing out on a huge opportunity: The Chinese smartphone market is exploding, with sales more than doubling over the past year. One-third of all smartphones are now sold in China -- more than the United States, India, Japan and the United Kingdom combined.

Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) is No. 1 or No. 2 in almost all other countries where it sells the iPhone, but most of those markets are far more saturated. Smartphone sales in the United States, for instance, grew by 36% last year -- still a healthy clip, but far slower than China.

"The smartphone industry is maturing; growth is shifting from premium to mass market, where ... Apple lacks presence," Indigo Equity Research Nick Landell-Mills wrote in a note to clients last month.

Next month, Apple may finally unveil its solution to the China problem: Apple is expected to announce the long-rumored low-cost iPhone, dubbed the "iPhone 5C," on Sept. 10.

On a conference call with Wall Street analysts last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook didn't acknowledge rumors that Apple is working on the iPhone 5C, but he did say the company is working "very cautiously with what we want to do with great quality."

Source: CNN