While Apple enjoyed the top spot in a cooling smartphone market in China, domestic smartphone makers are seeing Apple's own backyard as a new gold mine.

Chinese companies including Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, and Xiaomi have been expanding their businesses to the United States despite challenges, according to CNBC.com.

"The home market is now not as good as it was, so the chance to make higher margins in other markets is attractive," CNBC quoted Ben Wood, chief of research at analyst firm CCS Insight, as saying.

Although Apple sold the most phones in China in the first quarter of this year, the overall shipments in the Chinese market dropped by 4 percent compared to the same period last year, the first year-over-year decline in six years, according to market data from IDC.

Expansion into overseas markets might be a trend for Chinese smartphone makers this year, IDC's analysts predicted.

But tackling Apple on its home turf is no easy job, especially in a market where Apple has a 41 percent market share while Chinese brands are widely mistrusted, CNBC said. Using Huawei and ZTE as examples, Wood told CNBC, "They have to spend a disproportionate amount of money to even get on the radar. That is a challenge that they face."

Meanwhile, legal challenges cannot be ignored. "Both Apple and Samsung have been forthright in using their patent portfolios to protect their business interests," CNBC quoted Rana Pratap, principal technology consultant at patent consulting firm LexInnova, as saying.

Data from LexInnova shows that Apple has 8,206 patents and patent applications in the U.S., more than any of its Chinese rivals. Xiaomi, for example, only has 101 U.S. patents.

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