Chinese IT giant Lenovo said that its combined sales of smartphones and tablets were greater than for its PCs (in terms of volume) for the first time in the quarter to 30 June, as it became the fourth-largest smartphone maker worldwide.

According to figures realised by Gartner this week, the ambitious Chinese company saw sales of 10.7 million smartphones to end users during the second quarter of 2013, more than doubling the 4.4 million it saw in Q2 2012. This saw it overtaking countrymen ZTE, and closing the gap to number three-placed LG Electronics.

As far as the smartphone market is concerned, much of the company’s success has come from its home market, where Lenovo is the second-largest player after Samsung. According to Gartner, more than 95 per cent its sales came from here, an “it remains challenging for Lenovo to expand outside China as it has to strengthen its direct channel as well as its relationships with communications service providers”.

In its fiscal Q1 results presentation, Lenovo claimed it has made “good progress in Indonesia, India, Russia and Vietnam”.

It said that tablet sales grew in all geographies, more than tripling year-on-year. The company is claiming to be a top-five vendor in this segment, after Apple, Samsung, Asus and Acer.

On a group level, the company reported a profit attributable to shareholders of $173.93 million, up 23 per cent year-on-year, on revenue of $8.79 billion, up 10 per cent.

Sales of its Mobile Internet Digital Home unit, which includes smartphones and tablets, increased 105 per cent year-on-year to $1.2 billion, representing 14 per cent of its total revenue.

Its single biggest revenue generator was laptop computers, which made up 52 per cent of total revenue. Sales of $4.5 billion mark a year-on-year increase of 4.7 per cent.