According to Research firm Gartner the share of Apple Inc's in  China's smartphone market has plunged for a second straight quarter in the fourth quarter of last year.

With this, its ranking as dropped to No.5 amid competition from local vendors and as some consumers delayed purchases to wait for the iPhone 4S launch, Gartner said on Friday. 

Apple's market share fell to 7.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011, from 10.4 per cent in the previous three months. Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's share rose to 12.6 per cent, while ZTE Corp's was up at 11.1 percent, data from research firm Gartner showed. 

China has 975.5 million mobile phone subscribers and is expected to hit 1 billion in coming months.