Chinese consumers may want to buy nearly that many iPhones all by themselves

The LA Times thinks that Apple could soon sell as many iPhones in China as it sells in the rest of the world. 

Apple sold 72 million iPhones in its fiscal 2011, a staggering number that required all the muscle of the world's most valuable technology company, as well as a network of Asian factories pumping out the devices at a breakneck pace. The sales came from more than 100 countries.

Now Chinese consumers may want to buy nearly that many iPhones all by themselves.

That may well happen, says Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, who in a note to investors guessed that Apple may soon be selling 57 million iPhones annually in China, capturing 60% of the projected market for smartphone buyers there. That would be a sixfold increase from the 10 million iPhones Chinese consumers bought in 2011. 

The pent-up demand for the iPhone in China is hard to overestimate. The nation's leading carrier, China Mobile, has 650 million mobile subscribers, according to Huberty (compared with about 200 million for second-place China Unicom, which offers the iPhone). China Mobile does not technically support the iPhone because its network isn't compatible. But that hasn't stopped 10 million of its customers from finding ways to use the device anyway.

I wonder if Apple will soon need to build "Foxconn's" in every region of the world where it sells more than, say, 10 million iPhones? One in Mexico, one in Brazil, one in, let's say, Portugal.

Not sure there are enough Chinese to go around. Or if Apple wants to become so utterly dependent on one company, one country, one government.