Even though China saw a decrease in the past year of newly launched smartphones, the statistics on the total number of phones manufactured and shipped is impressive.

The China Academy of Telecommunication Research's analysis report on the Chinese mobile phone market reveals that the country's total mobile phone shipments reached 518 million units in 2015.

According to the report, the shipments of Chinese mobile phone market was 56.48 million in December 2015, a year-on-year increase of 25.2%; but the number of newly launched phones was 120, a year-on-year decrease of 6.3%. From January to December 2015, China's mobile phone shipments reached 518 million units, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%; yet the number of newly launched phones was 1,496, a year-on-year decrease of 28.1%.

In December 2015, China's shipment of 4G phones was 50.27 million, a year-on-year increase of 60.2%; and the number of newly launched 4G phones was 89, a year-on-year increase of 20.3%. The shipments of 4G phones accounted for 89% of the total shipments, while the newly launched 4G phones accounted for 74.2% of the newly launched mobile phones in China.

From January to December 2015, the total shipments of 4G phones reached 440 million, a year-on-year increase of 157% and it accounted for 85% of the total shipment volume; and the number of newly launched 4G phones was 1,106, a year-on-year increase of 39.6% and it accounted for 73.9% of the newly launched mobile phones.

For TD-SCDMA, the 3G network operated by China Mobile, the report showed about 89% of 4G phones shipped in December support TD-SCDMA. At the same time, 57.5% of them support FDD, 50.5% support WCDMA, and 36.7% support CDMA2000.