China-based smartphone makers increased shipments 44 per cent to 111.1 million units in Q3 compared to a year earlier.

Exports, which accounted for 39 per cent of shipments, were up 53 per cent from Q3 2013, according to Digitimes Research.

Huawei Device was the top mainland smartphone maker, shipping 14.8 million units during the quarter. Xiaomi was number 2, shipping 13.5 million units, followed by Lenovo (10.1 million), TCL Communication (10 million), Oppo (9.8 million), BBK (8 million), Coolpad (6.4 million), Gionee (6.3 million) and ZTE (5.9 million).

TCL exported 93 per cent of its total output while ZTE exported 51.7 per cent of its shipments. Both Huawei and Gionee shipped about 40 per cent of output overseas. Exports accounted for just 25 per cent of Lenovo’s shipments, 14.5 per cent of Oppo’s and 5.4 per cent of Xiaomi’s.

Digitimes Research forecasts that China vendors will ship 33 per cent more smartphones this year.

Based on data from Strategy Analytics, mainland shipments represented 24 per cent of global shipments in Q3, which hit 459.5 million after increasing 7.6 per cent from a year ago.