Samsung regains top spot in global smartphone market

Seoul: South Korean giant Samsung Electronics regained the top status in the global smartphone market in the first quarter of the year, even before the release of its flagship Galaxy S8, a report said on Saturday.

According to market research firm IDC, the South Korean tech giant sold about 7.9 million smartphones during the January-March period to account for a market share of 22.8 percent. Its US arch rival Apple came in second with a 14.9 percent share.

The latest figure marks a turnaround from the October-December period of 2016, when Apple stood as the top player.

Stung by the suspension of the Galaxy Note 7 phablet, Samsung still managed to take up 18.5 percent of the market in the fourth quarter of last year.

The company stopped the production of the smartphone following reports of the devices catching fire while charging.

Also, Huawei Technologies, Oppo and Vivo followed Apple and Samsung in the top five, with a combined market share of 22.4 percent in the first quarter this year, up from 18.7 percent tallied a year earlier.

Huawei led the pack with a 9.8 percent market share during the same period, nearly posting a double digit market share, the data showed.

Oppo followed with a 7.4 percent market share and Vivo with 5.4 percent, according to the data.

Pre-orders for its new flagship Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices have reached 80,000 units within a week of the launch in India and are expected to hit 150,000 units by the end of this month.