WASHINGTON, Oct 29: Samsung extended its lead over Apple in the global smartphone market in the third quarter as Chinese manufacturers also made inroads, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The worldwide smartphone market saw record sales in the quarter, with growth of 38.8 per cent from a year ago and 258.4 million units sold, the IDC survey said. Samsung widened its lead, shipping 81.2m smartphones, boosting its market share to 31.4pc.

Apple sold 33.8m iPhones in the quarter, but its growth was slower than the overall market, so its share slipped to 13.1pc from 14.4pc a year ago.

China's Huawei moved into third place, propelled by 76pc year-over-year growth. It sold 12.5m smartphones, grabbing a market share of 4.8pc, just ahead of the 4.7pc for fellow Chinese firm Lenovo.

South Korea's LG slipped from third to fifth place, with a 4.6pc share.

“Chinese vendors Huawei and Lenovo moved past LG, and not far behind are two more Chinese companies, Coolpad and ZTE,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas.

The overall mobile phone market grew 5.7pc from a year ago to 467.9m units, with Samsung on top with a 24.7pc market share, IDC said.—AFP