Global smartphone shipment growth was a “sluggish” 1 per cent year-on-year in Q2 2016, said Strategy Analytics, as market maturity and “uncertainty surrounding major political events” took their toll.

Some 340.4 million units were shipped, up from 338 million.

Notably, the research firm’s latest report showed a return to growth for the segment, albeit barely, after it said there had been a 3 per cent drop in the shipments in the last quarter.

Linda Sui, director at the company said there were signs that the global smartphone market had “reached a bottom in the first half of 2016, and the growth outlook for the second half of the year is improving”, with new product launches expected from Samsung, Apple and others.

Apple is widely expected to unveil the iPhone 7 in September, while Samsung is set to launch Galaxy Note 7 imminently.

For the time being, Samsung maintained its top position with 23 per cent market of the global smartphone market, growing from 21 per cent a year ago, after shipping 77.6 million worldwide in the quarter, growing 8 per cent from 71.9 million units in Q2 2015.

Rival Apple, meanwhile, will be banking on its next flagship to boost its position, after shipping 40.4 million iPhones during the period, representing a 15 per cent fall annually. Market share also dropped from 14 per cent to 12 per cent.

“Apple continues to face iPhone fatigue among consumers and the new iPhone SE model has not been able to stem that trend,” said Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics.

The third largest player, China’s Huawei, has 9 per cent of the global market share, broadly the same as last year, after increasing shipments by 4.9 per cent to 32 million.

Chinese players Oppo and Xiaomi were ranked at fourth and fifth respectively.