According to the results of the first quarter of 2017, experts from the analytical company IHS Markit registered more than 5% growth in global shipments of smartphones on an annualized basis. Prior to this, for two years there was a downward trend.

According to experts, in January-March 2017 manufacturers released a total of 338.9 million smartphones against 320.9% a year earlier, with the most pronounced progress demonstrated by Chinese companies.

Leading brands remain Samsung and Apple, which in the past quarter shipped 79.1 and 50.8 million smartphones, respectively. South Korean giant increased deliveries by 0.1%, while Apple experts registered a decrease of 0.8%.

Seven of the eight other companies that were among the top ten communicator vendors were from China. In addition, Chinese vendors have become record holders in terms of growth rates. So, Oppo (fourth place) has released 28.1 million smartphones, improving the result of the year-ago by 67.3%. Her compatriot Vivo, who closed the top 5, delivered 22.5 million units and showed an increase of 56.3%. Huawei finished third with a result of 34.6 million devices, which is 21.7% more than its indicator of a year ago.

However, some Chinese brands experienced a decline. For example, Xiaomi shipments fell 13.5%, from 14.8 to 12.8 million units, while ZTE and TCL Alcatel dropped 8.4% and 19.2%. In the rating, these three brands are located at the seventh, ninth and tenth places.

In addition, the study provides a list of the most popular models in 2016 smartphones. The first four places in the top ten occupied the Apple model: iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 6s Plus.

Apple demonstrated not only the ability to attract customers with its new products, but also the high viability of previous versions of smartphones - the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, commented in IHS.

Also in the list it seemed at once five Samsung models - Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy J3, Galaxy J5, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy J7.

The only device on the list that does not belong to Samsung or Apple is the Oppo A53 smartphone, which is located on the seventh line. Analysts drew attention to the significant progress that Oppo achieved - in 2016, shipments of its smartphones grew by 109%, which allowed the company to become the fourth largest communicator manufacturer in the world. At the same time, Huawei, ahead of Oppo both in terms of supplies and geography of sales, could not make any of its smartphones into the top ten best-sellers of 2016, experts added..