Smartphone manufacturer Apple maintained its first place in sales of November in China, followed by Xiaomi, which saw sales volume surge 46.9 percent month-on-month, according to a report by CINNO Research, a Shanghai-based consultancy in optoelectronics industry.

The launch of iPhone 13 contributed greatly to Apple's sales in Chinese market, with 2.72 million units sold in November, and the new model ranked first in terms of single unit sales around China for two consecutive months.

In November, about 6.7 million Apple smartphones were sold, rising 3.7 percent from a month earlier and 14 percent from the previous year.

According to CINNO Research's analysis, sales of Apple were estimated to hit a yearly high in the fourth quarter of 2021, as the company releases its production capacity and the New Year holiday approaches.

Xiaomi jumped to the second place in domestic smartphone sales in November, with 4.1 million units sold, which was mainly attributed to the debut of Redmi Note 11 series and the sales promotion of Double Eleven campaign - China's largest shopping spree.

The research consultancy expects Xiaomi to perform better in the first quarter of 2022, as Xiaomi 12 series went into market last month.

However, other smartphone brands, such as Vivo and Oppo, experienced declining sales in November compared to both a month and a year earlier.

Honor's sales dropped 2.4 percent from the previous month, but the figure saw a surge of 32.1 percent in comparison to that of last year.

CINNO Research expects the annual smartphone sales in China to reach about 320 million units, up 3 to 7 percent year-on-year.

Oppo was expected to rank first in market share domestically, hitting 22 percent, and the figure of Vivo is projected to reach 20 percent.

Apple will take the third spot with market share of 17 percent, while Xiaomi, Honor and Huawei will occupy fourth to sixth spots.