Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO & Huawei remained the fastest growing smartphone brands in Q3: Counterpoint

According to the new Market Monitor report by research firm Counterpoint, Global smartphone shipments grew 5 percent YoY reaching 400 million units in Q3 2017.

Chinese brands Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO & Huawei remained the fastest growing smartphone brands. Samsung, Apple, and LG also showed growth during the quarter, a report said.

"The global smartphone market continues to grow in single digits driven by growth in emerging markets. In such a scenario, we have seen key hardware differentiators proliferate to lower price points at much faster rates," said Jeff Fieldhack, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, in a statement.

"In addition, the increasing share of leading brands is putting additional pressure on smaller brands which can lead to consolidation in some of the OEM-crowded regions going forward," he said.

Apart from China, India and South-East Asia is fast becoming the next battleground for these Chinese brands. A Chinese brand holds a top-five ranking in each of these markets.

Samsung led the smartphone market by volume with a market share of 20.6 percent in Q3 2017. Its smartphone shipments recorded a growth of 9% annually during the quarter.

Sequentially, Samsung shipments grew 3 percent driven by the launch of the Note 8 and strong sales of new J-series. Revenues were down for Samsung due to higher sales of low and mid-end segment smartphones.

During the quarter, the leading smartphone players grew faster in international markets than domestic markets. This indicates that leading smartphone players are now gearing up to target higher price points in a bid to position their devices as quality products in the minds of the consumers," noted Research Analyst Shobhit Srivastava.

Apple shipments grew 3 percent annually in Q3 2017, reaching 46.7 million units globally.

Xiaomi emerged as the fastest growing brand YoY (over 81 percent) driven by strong sales in both China and India. Xiaomi was also the fastest growing brand in both China and India during the quarter.

Xiaomi shipped 28 million smartphones, capturing 7 percent market share in Q3 2017.