China Unicom's 3G market share beat China Mobile's in April

As it jumped 32%.

According to Maybank Kim Eng, China Unicom's share of the 3G+2G net adds for April expanded to 38% from 35% in March or 30% in FY12 while China Mobile's share for April contracted to 41% from 44% in March or 45% in FY12. We believe China Mobile now becomes less aggressive in subsidy and promotion offerings when gaining the mobile market share. To recap, China Mobile reported a flat earnings growth in 1Q13. 

China Unicom's 3G market share also expanded. China Unicom's share of the 3G net adds for April increased to 32% from 25% in March while China Mobile's share for April contracted to 44% from 57% in March. It indicates that China Unicom's low cost smartphone strategy and WCDMA technological advantage continued supporting the natural gain of the 3G subscribers in China.

Here's more:

China Unicom a more promising play on smartphone boom in China. ChinaUnicom upgraded all 3G base stations to HSPA+ in Dec 2012.

Although China Unicom becomes conservative on profitability over market share gain, we expect the improving mobile network speed and capability will support the natural gain of the 3G subscribers in China without scarifying profit margin.

Therefore, China Unicom is relatively more promising in migrating the 3G subscribers with strong earnings growth outlook, especially the higher operating leverage in its 3G business is in-sight. Re-iterate BUY.