Strong revenue growth in the third quarter has ended Apple Inc's declining streak of six consecutive quarters in China, the world's largest smartphone market.

Revenue from the China market was $9.8 billion, up 12 percent year-on-year and up 22 percent sequentially.

The quarterly rebound shows the Cupertino, California-based company is responding well in China to mounting competition from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and other local smartphone makers, market mavens said.