Nevertheless, Samsung saw its smartphone sales shrink in the second quarter of 2015, as rivals Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi bagged more customers during the three-month period.

Melissa Chau, Senior Research Manager of IDC’s Mobile Phone Team, said, “While much of the attention is being paid to Apple and Samsung in the top tier, the smartphone market in fact continues to diversify as more entrants hit this increasingly competitive market. The Chinese players are clearly making gains this quarter, every quarter sees new brands joining the market.”

IDC has once again cast its eye over the global smartphone market. Its findings reveal that Samsung continued to dominate with 21.7 percent of smartphone sales claimed in the second quarter.

Samsung came out top in terms of global market share, but was the only vendor to see its share slip year over year, having claimed 24.8 percent in the second quarter of 2014.

This is partly to blame on the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, IDC noted, which arrived in “limited supply” and to “mixed results”.

IDC explained that Samsung was also affected by surging smartphone sales by its competitors. Apple, for example, sold 47.5 million iPhones during the second quarter, claiming 14.1 percent of the market and up 34.9 percent compared with 2014.

Nevertheless, IDC credited this to the popularity of the Huawei P8, the Honor series and the mammoth-screened Mate 7 smartphone.

Xiaomi followed its fellow Chinese phone maker in the number four spot on IDC’s list, having sold 17.9 million smartphones in the second quarter to claim 5.3 percent of the market, an increase of 29.4 percent year on year.