New Delhi, Apr 30 (IANS): Samsung Electronics has retaken the top spot from Apple in the global smartphone market in the first quarter this year, a new report has said.

While Samsung's shipments declined 3 per cent (on-year), it was the only top-five smartphone brand to grow quarter-on-quarter.

The South Korean tech giant shipped 74 million units of smartphones over the January-March period.

Its market share rose to 23 per cent from 19 per cent last quarter, resulting in Samsung taking the top spot from Apple in Q1 2022, according to Counterpoint Research.

Apple's shipments declined by 1 per cent annually to reach 59 million units in Q1. This was after an expected seasonal quarterly shipment decline of 28 per cent.

Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo's component struggles continued, causing a quarterly and annual decline in their respective shipments, the report mentioned late on Friday.

The global smartphone market declined by 7 per cent YoY, shipping 328 million units in Q1 2022.

The decline was caused by ongoing component shortages, as well as Covid resurgence at the beginning of the quarter and the Russia-Ukraine war towards the end.

"Samsung seems to have overcome component shortages that affected its supply last year, as evidenced by higher-than-expected growth in its shipments despite a late flagship launch," said senior analyst Harmeet Singh Walia.

While component shortages are expected to ease soon, the Russia-Ukraine war poses a new challenge to the recovery of the global smartphone market.

"However, the impact of the war may develop wider ramifications if it leads to a drop in availability of raw materials, a rise in prices, further inflationary pressure and/or other vendors withdrawing from Russia," said research director Jan Stryjak.