After it was reported that smartphone shipments rose over 6% in the second quarter of 2013, analysts continued to predict record sales for the smartphone market. Smartphones have even, for the first time, overtaken feature phone sales.

Today, DigiTimes Research predicted that total global smartphone shipments for 2013 will reach just under one billion units. The analyst firm predicted 950 million units shipped globally, after 420 million smartphones were shipped during the first half of 2013. A crunch in the HD display market is expected to be the limiting factor in how many smartphones will ship this year.

As other analyst firms seem to agree on, growth in the smartphone market will be driven by emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Russia, and particularly China. Though shipments within China itself are predicted to remain stable, Chinese smartphone manufacturers will be looking outside the country to expand shipments.

DigiTimes predicts that four of the top 10 smartphone manufacturers for the year will be Chinese – Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, and Yulong. HTC is not expected to crack the top 10 this year. These predictions are backed-up by recent analyst estimates, which show that Chinese manufacturers are on the rise even as Apple and Samsung continue to dominate the industry.

(via DigiTimes)