Worldwide Smartphone Sales Grew 3.9 Percent in First Quarter of 2016: Gartner

"With such changing smartphone market dynamics, Chinese brands are emerging as the new top global brands".

Samsung maintained its position as the largest smartphone vendor with a 23.2 per cent share of the market, though sales remained flat at 81 million.

Meanwhile, Samsung extended its lead on Apple, which sold just under 52m phones compared to 60m in Q1 of 2015 - a 14% decrease.

Chinese manufactures like Oppo, Xiaomi, and Huawei continue their strong performance, while Apple sees a double-digit slide in iPhone sales, according to the latest statistics from Gartner.

Gartner found that two China-based brands ranked within the top-5 worldwide smartphone vendors in the first quarter of 2015 and represented 11% of the market.

According to calculations by market researcher Gartner, 349 million smartphones were sold worldwide in the first quarter of 2016, a 3.9 per cent increase over the same period in 2015.

Gartner says smartphone sales were driven by demand for low-priced smartphones in the emerging markers.

Bolstered by the early release of its flagship Galaxy S7 series, Samsung saw its first-quarter earnings advance 13.6 percent.

The South Korean tech giant's IT and mobile communications business, which covers smartphones, posted an operating profit of 3.89 trillion won, up 42 percent from a year earlier, marking the first time in almost two years for the business division to post an operating profit above 3 trillion won.

Gartner said that smartphone sales were driven by demand for low-priced devices in emerging markets and for affordable 4G smartphones - market drivers that have played to the strengths of emerging brands rather than the leading players.

Huawei and Xiaomi took third and fifth place respectively as their moves into Western markets began to pay dividends, backed up by strong domestic sales.

"In a slowing smartphone market where large vendors are experiencing growth saturation, emerging brands are disrupting existing brands' long-standing business models to increase their share", Gupta continued.

Lenovo however disappeared from the top five smartphone vendors ranking as well as the top 10 mobile phone vendor market in the first quarter of 2016. "Lenovo had another challenging quarter with its worldwide smartphone sales declining 33 percent", said Mr. Gupta. Its smartphone sales fell by 75% in Greater China, where it faced strong competition from local brands.

Android claimed 84% market share, surpassing the iOS and Windows operating systems.

Gartner's numbers show Samsung's market share falling from 24.1% to 23.2%.

Gupta additionally noted that the announced return to the smartphone and tablet markets by Nokia "will not be an easy mission".

Source: Worldwide Smartphone Sales Grew 3.9 Percent in First Quarter of 2016: Gartner