China is the biggest market globally for Nokia's Lumia phones, which use the Windows Phone operating system, Stephen Elop, chief executive officer of Nokia Corp, said in Guangzhou on Wednesday.

About a year ago, Nokia launched its first Lumia smartphone in China, Elop said. Since then, Nokia introduced seven Lumia models to the Chinese market.

The Lumia devices are seeing steady sales growth in 35 markets worldwide, including China, Elop said.

"China is and will continue to be a very important market for Nokia," Elop told reporters.

Elop said that about 250 million Chinese people use Nokia phones.

On Wednesday, Nokia also introduced its first smartphone that runs the new Windows Phone 8 operating system — the Nokia Lumia 920T — which is compatible with China Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G network.