London, Nov 23 (IANS): While Apple led the UK smartphone market with just over 34 per cent market share despite sales declining sequentially, Samsung has become the second largest brand, slightly behind Apple.

According to the latest research from Counterpoint's Market Pulse service, the UK smartphones sales remained flat annually in the third quarter this year, while the overall handset market (including feature phones) declined by 8 per cent (year on year).

"The Chinese giant Huawei was the third largest brand, with consistent double-digit market share, leveraging a diverse portfolio across all price-tiers, but still some distance behind Samsung and Apple that represent something approaching a virtual duopoly," said Parv Sharma, Research Associate at Counterpoint Research.

Top five brands account for almost 80 per cent of the smartphone sales in the UK in the third quarter.

"Like we see in the US market, Apple and Samsung together control more than two thirds of the UK smartphone market in sales volumes and more than 80 per cent in sales value," Sharma added.

The Apple iPhone 7 was the bestselling smartphone and contributed to 15 per cent of the total smartphones sold in Q3.

"Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus were second and third. Samsung also has a strong range across all price bands and it, together with Huawei, provided a strong volume platform that was resilient to attack from most other brands," said Research Director Peter Richardson.