Gupta says the Huawei ban announcement led to a sharp decline in Huawei's smartphone sales in the global market in the second quarter of 2019, although sales did improve slightly on the ban's deferment. "While its smartphone sales total was weaker globally, strong promotion and brand positioning helped Huawei sell a record number of smartphones in Greater China in the quarter, growing 31% in the region," he says. The new research revealed Samsung has returned to growth, while Apple continued to decline. Samsung sold over 75 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2019 and grew its share by 1.1 percentage points year over year. "Strong demand for Samsung's new Galaxy A series smartphones and the revamp of its entire entry-level and midrange smartphone range helped this positive performance," explains Gupta. "Demand for Samsung's flagship Galaxy S10 started to weaken during the quarter, however, indicating that achieving growth in 2019 as a whole will be a challenge."