BEIJING — China's mobile phone shipments soared 65.9 percent year-on-year to 36.09 million units last month, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) shows.

In the first three months of the year, China's mobile phone shipments topped 97.97 million units, up 100.1 percent compared with a year ago, said the CAICT, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Domestic brands continued to dominate mobile phone shipments in March, hitting 33.35 million units and accounting for 92.4 percent of total shipments.

Smartphone shipments came in at 35.27 million units last month, surging 67.7 percent year-on-year.

In March, a total of 41 new models were released into the market, up 32.3 percent year-on-year, according to the CAICT.