Chinese brands Huawei and Xiaomi are driving the growth of global smartphone sales, despite sales for most mobile phone manufacturers, including Samsung, declining, research and advisory company Gartner said on Monday.

During the third quarter of this year, global smartphone sales to end-users expanded by 1.4% to 389-million units; however, excluding the Huawei and Xiaomi brands, smartphone sales would have declined by 5.2%.

“Led by low-price smartphones, enhanced camera features and high-quality resolution displays, top Chinese mobile phone manufacturers boosted their sales across emerging markets in the third quarter,” said Gartner research director Anshul Gupta.

Overall sales of smartphones are slowing down; however, demand for Huawei smartphones surged 43% in the quarter under review.

While Samsung still holds the greatest percentage of market share, at 18.9%, compared with Huawei’s 13.4%, the gap between the two rivals continues to shrink, as Huawei expands aggressively by investing in branding and distribution in the emerging markets of the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa.

During the comparative quarter last year, Samsung held a 22.3% market share, while Huawei only had 9.5%.

Samsung experienced its biggest decline since Gartner has been tracking smartphone sales globally, with its smartphone sales declining 14% in the third quarter, Gupta noted.

“Samsung’s Galaxy S9, S9+ and Note 9 struggled to revive demand this year, and its revamped midtier and entry-tier smartphones continued to face huge competition from top Chinese brands who grew market share in key markets, such as India, and their expansion into regions beyond Asia Pacific continues to take away opportunities from Samsung,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Apple’s sales remained flat during the quarter, with 0.7% growth.

“Apple’s iPhones are facing a saturated premium smartphone market, with slowing growth rates and increased competition in China,” he explained.

However, Apple’s new flagship smartphones will be key to defining its overall iPhone unit sales this year.

“Initial channel checks suggest that the Xs Max is outselling the Xs model, and we also see the Xs Max as a critical addition for the Chinese market where Apple has been losing share.”

Apple has not shifted from its 11.8% slice of the market share since the third quarter of 2017, while Xiaomi is steadily expanding its share, growing from 7% in the third quarter of last year to 8.5% in the third quarter of this year.