After seeing the first-ever global decline in smartphone sales during the fourth quarter of 2017, smartphone sales managed to return to growth in the first quarter of 2018.

Almost 384m smartphones were sold in Q1 2018, a 1.3 per cent increase over the same period in 2017, according to Gartner. On the other hand, total mobile phone sales stalled in reaching 455m units sold.

“Demand for premium and high-end smartphones continued to suffer due to marginal incremental benefits during upgrade,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. “Demand for entry-level smartphones and low mid-tier smartphones improved due to better-quality models.”

Samsung comfortably remained out in front, despite seeing its market share fall slightly to 20.5 per cent, with 78.5m units sold in Q1 2018. Apple’s market share grew to 14.1 per cent but remained a distant second with its 54m units sold. The ‘big two’ were followed by the Chinese trio of Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo – selling 40.5m, 28.5m, and 28m units respectively. The rest accounted for 154m units between them.