Huawei has overthrown Xiaomi to become the leading smartphone vendor in China.

According to a report released by Market research firm IDC for the Chinese smartphone market, Xiaomi saw a significant 38 percent drop in shipments, from 17.1 million units to 10.5 million units, enough to move the tech giant to fourth position, making Huawei the number one vendor in the country.

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Huawei recorded a 17.2 percent market share and shipped 19.1 million smartphone devices in Q2 2016, an increase from the 16.6 million units shipped same time last year, according to Tech Crunch.

Oppo and Vivo followed in second and third place after registering a 16.2 percent and 13.2 percent share of the market respectively. Oppo's shipments saw a twofold increase when measured up against last year's numbers, while Vivo registered a 75 percent growth.

"The success of Huawei, OPPO, and vivo in the market can be attributed to their concerted effort to build their brand and aggressive marketing to attract the consumers, along with the focus on product differentiation," said IDC's Xiaohan Tay.

"In the past, Xiaomi started the trend of selling its phones online and other vendors soon followed suit and created their own online brand," Tay added. "After vendors witnessed OPPO's success with its R9, they also started riding on the trend of hiring celebrity endorsers to represent their brand and appeal more to the young crowd."

Even though Xiaomi has dismissed IDC's statistics, stating that other, more prominent research firms have published higher estimates, the numbers are still dramatically lower than the Q2 2015 figures.

Apple Inc. comes in at No. 5 in the Chinese smartphone market. Local players have been dominating the market over the last few quarters by offering handsets with improved quality, features and value for money, because of which Apple's sales in China slumped 32 percent.

TagsHuawei, china, smartphone market, Chinese smartphone market, Xiaomi, Oppo, vivo, apple, IDC