Apple Inc opened its 14th store on the Chinese mainland in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, on Jan 24, 2015. [Photo/China Daily]

BEIJING - Apple Inc?secured 21.5 percent of the Chinese urban smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2014, up from 19 percent a year earlier, narrowing its gap with market leader Xiaomi, according to a report sent to Xinhua by the UK-based market research company Kantar Worldpanel ComTech on Friday.

"While Xiaomi remained the bestselling brand, Apple?closed the gap slightly," said Tamsin Timpson, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Asia.

China's homegrown smartphone maker, Xiaomi Inc was established in April 2010 by Lei Jun, who is often called China's Steve Jobs. The company said it sold 61.1 million handsets in 2014, surging 227 percent year on year, and its revenue grew 135 percent to 74.3 billion yuan ($12 billion).

Xiaomi is now marketing products in six foreign countries and regions.

On Jan 27, Apple said globally it had sold 74.5 million iPhones during the fourth quarter of last year, but did not reveal individual country sales.

Throughout 2014, Xiaomi retained a 13.6 percent market share, while Apple's share in the Chinese market rose to 7.3 percent, according to Strategy Analytics.

South Korea's top tech giant Samsung Electronics Co slumped to the third in the smartphone market share in China in Q4 of 2014, another market tracker, Canalys said.