Lenovo, the Chinese vendor in the process of acquiring Motorola Mobility from Google, reported record annual revenue and profit, boosted by strong smartphone and tablet shipments.

The company said it shipped 50 million smartphones, a 72 per cent year-on-year growth, and 9.2 million tablets, during the year ending 31 March.

The smartphone shipment figure put Lenovo just behind Huawei in terms of global sales, with the latter recently reporting smartphone shipments of 52 million for 2013.

However, smartphone shipments were significantly less than the 60 million it was reportedly aiming for in the 2013 financial year — something the $2.9 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility should help with.

During the fourth quarter Lenovo launched its first LTE-enabled smartphone, the Vibe Z (pictured), and the Yoga Tablet, a 10-inch HD device.

Lenovo’s global smartphone shipments for the fourth quarter increased 59.4 per cent year-on-year, faster than the global increase of 28 per cent.

The quarter ending 31 March was the fourth consecutive period in which the company sold more tablets and smartphones than PCs, which the company claims shows its “transformation as a leader in Smart Connected Devices.”

The company said it focused on China by expanding its Lenovo App store, which so far has seen six billion downloads, and is averaging 25 million downloads per day.

Lenovo’s revenue for the year was $38.7 billion, a 14 per cent improvement, while full year profit was $817 million, up 29 per cent. Lenovo’s board of directors agreed to pay a final dividend of $0.0232 for the fiscal year.

Looking at the fiscal fourth quarter, the company reported revenue of $9.4 billion, up 19 per cent year-on-year, and earnings of $158 million, a 25 per cent increase.