The International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, expects smartphone shipments to grow in 2015 to 1.44 billion units.  Shipments are forecast to grow just 1.2 percent in 2015, down from 19.7 percent in 2014.

Even if growth has slowed, China remains a vast market, but last year, 52 percent of Chinese smartphone sales revenue came from overseas. Markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America are blossoming.

Another homegrown smartphone maker sold 61.1 million units in 2014, more than one million of them in India.