There were 280 million handsets sold in the China market in 2011, growing by 12% from 2010, and 58.7% of them were at CNY1,000 (US$155) and below, according to China-based iiMedia Research.

China surpassed the US to become the world's largest smartphone market in 2011, iiMedia indicated.

Among international vendors, Nokia had the largest market share of 33.41% in terms of sales volume, followed by Samsung Electronics with 17.6%, Apple with 11.2%, HTC with 3.6%, Sony Ericsson with 3.1%, Motorola Mobility with 2.9% and LG Electronics with 2.8%. Huawei was the largest local vendor with a market share of 6.7%, followed by ZTE with 6.3%, Coolpad with 2.8% and Lenovo with 2.0%.