400 Million Chinese Have Mobile Phones -- Good Consumers All?

The China Herald Blog (a good source of China News) blogs on how by the end of this month China will have approximately 400 million cell phone users.  I find this interesting because just today I was thinking about how I do not know anyone age 13 or over who does not have his or her own mobile phone.  It has become a given that everyone has one, and this is as true of the people with whom I deal in China as it is of the people I know in the United States and elsewhere.  Now surely if someone can afford a mobile phone, they are a legitimate potential customer for Western retailers and probably the opposite is true as well.  I'm no economist, but it would seem that perhaps this mght be a good shorthand way to think about the number of consumers for Western goods in China.