While Huawei and Xiaomi are currently competing neck and neck for the number one title in China's smartphone market, Huawei is expected to be able to widen its shipment gap against Xiaomi quarter on quarter, according to sources from Taiwan's handset supply chain.

Huawei shipped 27.4 million smartphones globally in the third quarter of 2015, increasing 63% from a year, according to the company.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi shipped 18.5 million smartphones globally in the third quarter, according to a Chinese-language MoneyDJ.com report. Xiaomi has also lowered its shipment target for 2015 to 80 million units, the report said.

On ther other hand, Huawei shipped 75.6 million smartphones in the first three quarters of 2015 and aims to ship over 100 million for all of the year.

According to IHS, Xiaomi continued to rank as the top smartphone vendor in the China market in the third quarter of 2015 with a 16.4% share, while Huawei took the second position with a 16.2% share.

However, according to Canalys, Huawei already beat Xiaomi to become the largest smartphone vendor in China in the third quarter.

Since China-based smartphone vendors have been forced to boost sales abroad due to the maturing domestic market, Huawei will outperform Xiaomi in overseas markets thanks to its high brand image and deepened deployments in overseas channels, said the sources.

Huawei has established strong cooperation ties with a number of telecom operators globally and has also built up a retail channel network of about 40,000 of outlets, added the sources.