Sales of smartphones around the world in the first quarter rose 3.9 percent year on year to 349 million, according to US-based research firm Gartner.

South Korea's Samsung continued to dominate the market, with 23.2 percent, followed by US tech giant Apple (14.8 percent), and China's Huawei (8.3 percent), Oppo (4.6 percent) and Xiaomi (4.3 percent), the report said, adding that the combined share of the three Chinese companies rose over 6 percentage points from the previous year.

Individually, Oppo's quarterly sales jumped 145 percent year on year — the highest of all those monitored — due to its success in attracting consumers with handsets in the 2,000 (US$305) to 3,000 yuan segment of the market, the report said.

Apple saw its market share fall by 3.1 percentage points year on year after reporting a double-digit decline in sales for the first quarter, it said.