New York, Jan 12 (IANS): Apple's iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 6s were the three most popular smartphones in the US at the beginning of the three-month holiday period last year, making a combined share of 31.3 per cent, media reported.

At 55.3 per cent of all smartphone sales, down from 60.4 per cent in the same period last year, the holiday period marked the sixth consecutive period of decline for Android devices in the US market, Digital Trends reported on Wednesday, quoting data collected by consumer research firm Kantar Worldpanel.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge were the fourth and fifth best-selling phones in the US, with Samsung capturing 28.9 per cent of smartphone sales.

In the US, iOS grew 6.4 percent in the same three-month period, rising to a 43.5 percent share of the market.

Although Android decreased in the US, Google Pixel recorded 1.3 per cent of sales in the three months ending November 2016, with more than half of that business done through Verizon.

"Both Android and iOS increased their presence across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain, "largely due to the decline of Windows," the Kantar report said.

Apple reportedly shipped 207 million iPhones in 2016, down from 236 million in 2015.

In urban China, iOS was down year-on-year at 19.9 per cent, but continued strong period-on-period growth with sales from iPhone 7.

"In China, iOS fell to 19.9 per cent of smartphone sales, down 5.4 per cent from the same period in 2015. About 80 per cent of all smartphones sold in China in the three-month period ending November were running Android," the report said.

Oppo posted strong growth in China with 12.9 per cent of smartphone sales. Apple, iPhone 7 became the best-selling device in Urban China at 6.6 per cent, pushing Oppo R9 to second place at 4.7 per cent.