Global smartphone shipments grew 6 per cent year-on-year during Q2 to reach 360 million units, as Huawei continued to gain on Samsung and Apple at the top of the market.

In its latest global smartphone shipments study, Strategy Analytics said the steady increase was driven by first-time buyers in Africa and the launch of new Android flagships in Western Europe.

Samsung continued to lead the market in Q2 with a 22.1 per cent market share on shipments of 79.5 million units, though its proportion of sales were down from 22.7 per cent during the same period in 2016. Apple’s market share also fell, down 0.4 per cent year-on-year to 11.4 per cent – with 41 million units shipped.

Strategy Analytics director Woody Oh said Apple would be “nervously looking over its shoulder in the next few quarters” as “Huawei is outperforming across Asia, Europe and Africa with popular Android models such as the P10 and Mate 9.”

The company said Apple’s decline in share was partly due to the iPhone going out of fashion in China and pointed to the anticipated iPhone 8 launch in the autumn as being an important marker for the company.

Behind the two market leaders, Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi all grew their market shares during Q2.

Huawei’s market share grew 1.3 per cent year-on-year to 10.7 per cent, Oppo’s share rose from 5.3 per cent in Q2 2016 to 8.2 per cent in the recent quarter, while Xiaomi reentered Strategy Analytics’ top five manufacturers’ list with a 6.4 per cent share, replacing Vivo in the ranking.

Looking at the current quarter, Strategy Analytics predicted Samsung would strengthen on the forthcoming launch of the Galaxy Note 8.