Apple was the only vendor to see growth in its smartphone and tablet GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) shipments in the second quarter of 2019, boosted by the company’s move to use internal designs in its chips, data from Strategy Analytics showed.

The company has seen a 27 per cent year-over-year rise of handset GPU shipments in the period, according to the report.

All other top vendors, including Arm, Qualcomm, Imagination Technologies and Intel, saw their GPU shipments drop in the second quarter of 2019.

Overall, the global smartphone and tablet GPU market shrunk by 9 per cent year-over-year.

Chip technology company Arm was the market leader with a share of 43 per cent in Q2 2019, followed by semiconductor company Qualcomm with 36 per cent and tech giant Apple with 12 per cent.

Associate director of Strategy Analytics Sravan Kundojjala explained Arm’s weakening position with an underperformance of its key licensees MediaTek and Unisoc in the smartphone market in the last two years.

“In addition, Imagination Technologies, despite losing Apple’s GPU business, made inroads at MediaTek and Unisoc with key design-wins,” he added.

The research company noted Samsung, which is seen as another significant GPU licensee for Arm, has partnered with AMD and this could also affect the market leader’s position in the future.