Seoul, May 31 (IANS): Samsung expanded its presence in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) smartphone market in the first quarter of the year, a report showed on Monday.

The South Korean tech giant shipped 30.6 million smartphones in the EMEA market in the January-March period for a 32.8 percent market share, according to the latest report from industry researcher International Data Corp. (IDC).

The figures were up from a year earlier when the company shipped 22.7 million smartphones for a 29.5 percent market share.

"Samsung had a very strong quarter and captured nearly two-fifths of the European smartphone market -- its largest quarterly share for six years," IDC said.

Xiaomi moved up two spots to take the runner-up position after its smartphone shipments nearly doubled to 14.4 million units in the first quarter for a 15.4 percent market share.

Its Chinese rival, Shenzhen Transsion Holdings, came in third with a 15 percent market share by shipping 14 million smartphones in the first three months of 2021, reports Yonhap news agency.

Apple fell from the second spot to fourth place with a market share of 14.3 percent after shipping 13.3 million iPhones in the first quarter.

The overall EMEA smartphone market expanded to a first-quarter record of 93.06 million units, up 20.9 percent from a year earlier, with its market value surging 29 percent on-year to US$31.67 billion.

"With such a strong showing to the opening quarter of the year, however, IDC is expecting a reversal this year of the slow year-on-year decline in smartphone sales that we have seen in Europe since 2015," IDC said.