BEIJING, Dec. 31 -- Shipment of 5G mobile phones in China neared 19.52 million in October, accounting for 80.1 percent of the country's total mobile phone shipment, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).

During this period, 20 new 5G mobile phone models were released in the country, up 25 percent year on year, said the CAICT, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Domestic brands continued to claim the lion's share of the Chinese mobile phone market, with their shipment topping 16.8 million -- contributing to 69 percent of China's total mobile phone shipment in the period.

In October, newly-released domestic-brand mobile phone models rose 20 percent year on year to 30, accounting for 90.9 percent of all new models on the market.

China's 5G mobile phone shipment reached 173 million in the first 10 months of this year, down 17.7 percent from the same period last year.