Huawei extended its market lead by shipping 41.5 million smartphones, to reach a record share of 42 percent in the third quarter of China's smartphone market, registering 66 percent annual growth, according to the latest report released by Canalys, a market research company, on Oct 30.

As per the report, this is the sixth consecutive quarter of Huawei's double-digit growth.

"Huawei opens a huge gap between itself and other venders. It has 25 percent more share than this quarter's runner-up, Vivo," said Nicole Peng, Canalys vice-president of mobility. "Its dominant position gives Huawei a lot of power to negotiate with supply chain and to increase its wallet share within channel partners. Huawei is in a strong position to consolidate its dominance further amid 5G network rollout, given its tight operator relationships in 5G network deployment, and control over key components, such as local network compatible 5G chipsets, compared with local peers."

The growth of Huawei put significant pressure on OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi, whose shipments are in freefall despite new products constantly pushed to market, added Louis Liu, an analyst at the Shanghai-based research company.

The report shows Apple maintains the fifth position, thanks to the immediate boost of the iPhone 11 launched in September, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of its Q3 shipments.

"Apple is more prepared," Liu said. "Its iPhone 11 model focused on camera improvements, which proved desirable for Chinese consumers. More importantly, a lower launching price and a more flexible channel margin structure for local distribution on the new devices were crucial market stimuli for Apple."