Chinese smartphone manufacturers shipped 347 million handsets in the first nine months of this year, accounting for three quarters of the domestic market, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

But the majority of Chinese people are still using feature phones — phones that are not equipped with operating systems and cannot install diversified applications.

The ministry said the smartphone penetration rate in China is about 25 percent, while the figure in many developed countries is more than 50 percent.

The worldwide smartphone market grew 38.8 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2013, according to a report issued by the International Data Corporation on Wednesday. Vendors shipped 258.4 million smartphones in 3Q13, establishing a new record for units shipped in a single quarter by more than 9 percent, the report said.

Ryan Reith, program director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said China has become one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world, accounting for more than one third of all shipments last quarter.