Seoul, Dec 12 (IANS): Samsung Electronics was the largest smartphone vendor in Russia in the third quarter of the year, beating its Chinese rival Huawei Technologies.

According to market researcher Counterpoint Research, Samsung accounted for 28.4 per cent of smartphone sales in Russia in the July-September period, edging out Huawei by 2.9 per cent points.

China's Xiaomi Corp. came in third with a 22.6 per cent share in the third quarter, followed by Apple Inc. with a 9.2 per cent share, data showed.

"The Samsung Galaxy A51, Samsung Galaxy A31 and Apple iPhone 11 are the top-selling smartphones on online platforms, while the Samsung Galaxy A51, Redmi Note 8T and Samsung Galaxy A31 are the bestselling models on offline platforms," said Tarun Pathak, an associate director at Counterpoint Research.

Smartphone sales in Russia grew 5 per cent on-year in the third quarter, with 34 per cent of them purchased online due to the pandemic, reports Yonhap news agency.

When it comes to online smartphone sales, Samsung ranked third with a 26.3 per cent share, trailing behind Huawei with 27.8 per cent and Xiaomi with 27 per cent.

"After the restoration of normalcy in retail store operations, Samsung went back to depending on offline sales, which caused a decrease in its market share for online sales," Counterpoint Research said.