Samsung Electronics saw its share in China’s smartphone market fall back below 1 percent in the second quarter as Chinese consumers bought more domestic brands, industry data showed on Aug. 6. 

The company shipped 700,000 smartphones to China in the April-June period, accounting for a mere 0.7 percent of the market share in the world’s largest smartphone market, according to the data from market researcher Strategy Analytics. 

The Korean smartphone maker’s share in China has steadily retreated from 4.9 percent in 2016 and 2.1 percent in 2017, and hovered below 1 percent since the second quarter of 2018 before barely making up 1.1 percent in the previous quarter.

In contrast, Chinese handset makers posted increased shipments at home.

Huawei shipped 37.3 million units to take up a 37.3 percent share in the second quarter, followed by Oppo with 19.7 percent, Vivo with 18.5 percent and Xiaomi with 12 percent.

US tech giant Apple shipped 6.2 million to China over the period to take the fifth spot.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)