It's being reported today that while Apple has continued to make its presence felt on the global smartphone market, there's now a group of Chinese players looking to challenge them on their home turf.

As the smartphone market in the world's largest economy begins to slow, domestic manufacturers are looking overseas and see potential in the U.S. A large number of companies from China have expressed an interest in entering the U.S. market, but trying to dislodge Apple from the top spot could be tricky business. Companies like Lenovo, ZTE, Xiaomi and Huawei for starters.

One of the biggest challenges for China's tech giants, according to analysts, is building a brand in a market where Apple has a 41 percent market share. Huawei told CNBC earlier this year that branding and marketing is a "huge priority." Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, told CNBC by phone the Chinese will "have to spend a disproportionate amount of money to even get on the radar."

And then there's the potential for legal challenges from Apple who holds approximately 8,200 active patents and patent applications, according to patent and litigation consulting firm LexInnova. Xiaomi has 101 US patents and only two of them have been granted patents.

With LG's 14,456 patents, they only hold third spot in North America with 8% market share and Sony with their 17,500 patents didn't even make the top five struggling in a recent report by comScore. So these new entrants that are considering a counter attack against Apple are going to have a hard time cracking North America anyway you look at it. For more on this story, see the full CNBC report here.

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