China has been penetrating markets here and there quite successfully. In the previous year, the country managed to join the competition giving competitors a run for their money. The global phone industry has shifted - Apple and Samsung are no longer just the players.

Previously, smartphones were targeted to a high-end market. Only the affluent or rich can afford to buy the device. These days, there are emerging markets offering companies lots of opportunities. Different types of smartphones have also emerged forcing players like Apple and Samsung to diversify products to cater to different consumer groups.

The diversifying needs and emerging markets are the two primary factors that will affect the growth of smartphone sales in the future. Major Chinese tech manufacturers like Lenovo, Huawi, Oppo, Coolpad, Xioami and ZTE are taking advantage of this. It is only a matter of time before these players put out their series of products challenging features of the bigger market shareholders.

Although Samsung remains the top selling vendor of phones in China, earning 20 percent of the market shares for Q1 2013, Chinese companies are poised to overtake according to Canalys. They have already gone past Apple. The company has around 8 percent of the smartphone market in China.

Players like Huawei and Lenovo have been successful in switching gears and expanding their services and products. Lenovo has improved their position after releasing the ThinkPad laptops. The firm expressed venture into the smartphones industry in no time.

"There's a long tail of local competitors that are going to push Apple and Samsung harder and harder," Neil Mawston , analyst from Strategy Analytics, explained.

Many phone consumers in China are particular about the price because network operators do not usually subsidize the phones in the country. Unlike in Europe in United States where the subsidies cover for a certain sum masking the actual amount people pay for their phones. More importantly, Chinese consumers switch cell phones faster than people in the West. Analyst say consumers change their phones around every six months compared with consumers in Europe and United States.