China's budding smartphone industry has reached a shipments record of 118 million sets throughout 2011 - up 175 percent year-on-year - which was more than the combined number the nation has ever sold up until the end of 2010, a report shows.

The nation's cellphone shipments amounted to 455 million sets in 2011, according to the report issued by China Academy of Telecommunication Research of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's top industrial regulator.

Among 1.6 billion cellphones sold globally in 2011, smartphones accounted for 472 million sets. In the fourth quarter, Android smartphones topped the list with 51 percent of market share, trailed by Apple's iOS with 24 percent and Nokia's Symbian with 11 percent.