Samsung Electronic Co. Ltd. has increased its lead as the world’s largest smartphone vendor in the second quarter as the overall market remained flat and Apple, Inc.’s market share has shrunk, according to a new report from the International Data Corporation (IDC).

All vendors combined shipped 343.3 million smartphones in the quarter, up only 0.3 percent over Q2 2015 but up 3.1 percent from 333.1 million units in Q1 2016.

For the quarter ending June 30, Samsung shipped 77 million units, up 5.5 percent from 73 million in Q2 2015 and increasing its market share to 22.4 percent (up from 21.3 percent) in large part due to the success of the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge flagship handsets.

Lagging well and truly behind was Apple, which only managed to ship 40.4 million iPhones in the quarter, down 15 percent from the 47.5 million units shipped in the same quarter of 2015; IDC notes that it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Apple with the cheaper 4-inch iPhone SE capturing first-time smartphone buyers and Android users looking to switch over to the Apple ecosystem.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. maintained its position in third place with strong domestic and European sales seeing the Chinese company increase its shipments 8.4 percent year-on-year to 32.1 million units, driven by the increasing popularity of its premium phones including the P9 and Mate 8.

Shake it up

The biggest shakeup on the list was with fourth and fifth position with Chinese vendors Oppo Electronics Corp. and Vivo Mobile Communications Co., Ltd. nudging out formerly fourth and fifth placed Lenovo Group Ltd. and Xiaomi, Inc.

Oppo sold 22.6 million units in the quarter, up a staggering 136.6 percent from the 9.6 million it sold in Q2 2015; IDC notes that much of this growth is the result of “aggressive marketing” around its R9 handset in China.

Vivo’s numbers were also impressive with the company shipping 16.4 million units in the quarter compared to 9.1 million year-on-year, up 80.2 percent.

“We continue to see a number of changing dynamics in the smartphone market and many vendors are readjusting their business strategy and portfolio to take advantage of these market movements,” IDC Program Vice President Ryan Reith said in a statement. “Mature markets continue the transition away from pure subsidy and over to EIP programs and Apple is beginning to put more emphasis on ‘Device as a Service’ to try to prevent lengthening replacement cycles.”

Declining figures at Apple come as no surprise as the company itself continues to report declining sales in its quarterly reports but perhaps the big takeaway is that Samsung is picking up much of the business Apple is losing, and with the Galaxy S7 being such a brilliant phone Apple will have to fight to win those customers back.

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