China has seen exponential growth in smartphone adoption, with shipments surging at an estimated 199% year-on-year in the second quarter to 42 million units.
This figure also represents a 32% increase over the previous quarter, according to Canalys.
This is the second consecutive quarter of record breaking volumes in a single market. China accounted for 27% of the 158 million global smartphone shipments, compared to 16% for the United States.
Notably, growth in China was heavily driven by domestic vendors, while international vendors struggled to keep pace, the Canalys says.
While Samsung maintained its overall leadership position in China with a 17% market share, this reduced sequentially as volumes were flat and as several local vendors closed the gap.
ZTE, Lenovo and Huawei were the second-, third- and fourth-placed vendors, ahead of Apple. The three vendors made up a third of the market, and achieved growth of 171%, 2,665% and 252% year-on-year respectively.
Collectively, domestic Chinese vendors shipped 25.6 million units - up 518% year on year - and accounted for 60% of the market. By comparison, international vendors grew by a more modest 67% to 16.7 million units.
Apple fell to fifth place in China. While its shipments were up 102% year-on-year, they were down 37% compared to Q1 2012.