There were 261.3m active smartphones and tablets in China as of June 2013, according to stats just released by Flurry. That represented a whopping 24 per cent of the entire worldwide connected device installed base measured by the company.

Growth in smartphones and tablets in China lagged the world as a whole during 2010 and much of 2011, but since the end of 2011, China has been in a period of exponential growth. During this period it surpassed the growth rate for the world as a whole. Flurry says it expects China to maintain its leadership, in terms of the active installed base, for the foreseeable future, because device penetration rate is still relatively low and much opportunity remains.

Examining a random sample of 18,310 of the devices in Flurry’s system in China that run iOS or Android apps reveals that Apple and Samsung are the top two device manufacturers. But China’s own Xiaomi comes in a strong third, with a 6 per cent share of the market, ahead of HTC, Lenovo and a multitude of others.

Flurry notes that Xiaomi has been successful in accumulating a large number of active users for each device model it releases. Worldwide, only Apple, Amazon, and Samsung have more active users for each device model released.

There are rumours circulating that Xiaomi is planning launch a tablet. If true, this move could increase the use of Android tablets in China. 21 per cent of the iOS devices in Flurry’s randomly drawn sample were tablets, compared to only 4 per cent of the Android devices.

Looking at how Chinese people use their connected devices, there are both similarities and differences compared to the rest of the world. As a general rule worldwide, games dominate time spent in apps measured by Flurry Analytics, and China is no exception. On average, Chinese owners of iOS devices spent 47 per cent of their app time in games. The percentage of app time devoted to games was even greater for Android, at 56 per cent.

But smartphones and tablets are not just about fun and games in China. Compared to iOS device owners elsewhere, the average time Chinese owners spend using Books, Newsstand, Utility, and Productivity apps is greater than the rest of the world (1.8x, 1.7x, 2.3x, and 2.1x respectively). On average, Chinese owners of Android devices spend more than seven times as much time in Finance apps (7.4x) than Android owners elsewhere, but they also spend more time in Entertainment apps (1.7x).

You can read more in a Flurry blog post here.