Lenovo said it shifted more smartphones than PCs for the first time ever in the quarter to 30 June, with a record volume of 15.8 million units, up 39 per cent.

That’s a significant statistic given that Lenovo is the world’s largest PC vendor.

Citing figures from IDC, the company said that it “surpassed Samsung to become the largest smartphone maker” in China. But this contrasts with figures from Canalys, which gave Xiaomi top-spot ahead of Samsung.

Some 13 million of Lenovo’s smartphones went to its home market. The company said that with regard to mobile devices, it “continued to improve profitability with broadened routes to market and a greater focus on internet-enabled, open market sales”.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Yuanqing Yang, CEO of the company, acknowledged that while China is its biggest market for smartphones, there is greater potential elsewhere – no doubt due to fast-growing Xiaomi as well as global giants such as Samsung.

International sales represented “nearly 20 per cent” of the total, compared with around 5 per cent a year ago.

The company also said that it saw smartphone shipments pass 1 million devices in the EMEA region for the first time (up 500 per cent). Smartphone shipments in APAC were 1.5 million units, up 3.7 times from the same quarter last year. It also ships devices to Latin America.

With regard to tablets, Lenovo provided few details, other than that volume increased by 67 per cent year-on-year to reach 2.3 million devices, with the company becoming number three worldwide.

Consolidated revenue in Lenovo’s Mobile Device Business, which includes smartphones and tables, increased 32 per cent year-over-year to $1.6 billion, representing 15 per cent of total revenue.

In a statement, the executive noted: “As the PC industry recovers, the smartphone market continues its shift from premium to mainstream, and our acquisitions of Motorola Mobility and IBM x86 proceed toward completion, we see even more opportunity to keep growing rapidly.”

With regard to the Motorola Mobility acquisition, Lenovo said that it “remains confident we can turn [Motorola] around in 4 to 6 quarters after [the] deal closes”. No further detail on its timetable for the deal were revealed.

Looking forward, it said that it “continues to drive innovation across Smart Connected Devices, with new and exciting smartphone, ecosystem and enterprise products coming in the second half of its fiscal year.”

On a group level, the company reported a profit attributable to shareholders of $214 million, up 23 per cent year-on-year, on revenue of $10.4 billion, up 18 per cent.

In its core PC business, it said that its market share hit an “all time record” 19.4 per cent, gaining share in every geography. Some 49 per cent of its revenue comes from laptops, and 29 per cent from desktop PCs.