Gartner: Apple Now Number One In China, Samsung Losing Global Share

is now China's largest smartphone vendor, according to

Gartner, a leading information technology research and advisory company, stated earlier this week that iPhone sales surged 72.5 percent during the first quarter of 2015 in China. As such, Apple is the now the number one smartphone vendor in the country for the first time in its history. Apple dethroned China-based Xiaomi for top ranks in the world's largest market. Apple's strong iPhone sales in China had an impact on Android's performance in the country, Gartner noted. However, Chinese vendors emerged as "key winners" in emerging markets, the report further added. Chinese vendors recorded an average growth of 73 percent in smartphone sales and saw their combined share rise to 47 percent from 38 percent during the first quarter of 2015.

remained the worldwide smartphone leader with 81.123 million units shipped in the first quarter. However, the company saw its market share dip to 24.2 percent from 30.4 percent a year ago. Apple ranked second with 60.177 million units shipped which helped improve its market share to 17.9 percent from 15.3 percent a year ago. Total worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totaled 460.3 million units in the first quarter, marking a 2.5 percent increase from a year ago. "Apple's extension into more Asian markets helped it close the gap with Samsung globally," Anshul Gupta, Research Director at Gartner said." He also noted "Despite a weak first quarter globally, Samsung's performance returned to growth quarter-on-quarter, with an 11 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2014." Lenovo saw its shipments increase to 18.88 million from 16.72 million a year ago but its market share dipped to 5.6 percent to 5.9 percent. Nevertheless, the company ranked third largest smartphone vendor by units sold. Huawei ranked fourth with 18.102 million units shipped, giving the Chinese-based firm a 5.4 percent global market share. Android remained the world's dominant operating system with 265,012 million units shipped in the first quarter, an improvement from the 227,549 million units shipped a year ago. However, Android's market share fell to 78.9 percent from 80.8 percent over the same time period. Apple's operating system market share improved to 17.9 percent from 15.3 percent a year ago.

's Windows platform saw its market share dip to 2.5 percent from 2.7 percent a year ago. Similarly,

's operating system market share fell to 0.4 percent from 0.6 percent.