Samsung Electronics Co. was the top global smartphone manufacturer in the third quarter of the year, a report showed Wednesday, as demand for its mobile devices increased in advanced markets amid the pandemic.

Samsung led the industry in terms of smartphone production with 78 million units in the July-September period, up 42 percent from a quarter earlier, and accounted for 23.2 percent of the total share, according to market researcher TrendForce.

"This result reflects Samsung's continuing focus on specific regional markets such as North America and Europe," TrendForce said. "Owing to economic stimulus policies and subsidies, smartphone sales in the target markets have recovered somewhat."

Samsung was followed by Chinese players Oppo and Xiaomi, which had market shares of 13.4 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively.

Oppo, which includes OnePlus and Realme devices, produced 45 million smartphones in the third quarter, up 64 percent from the previous months, while Xiaomi manufactured 44.5 million smartphones, up 51 percent from the previous quarter.

Apple shared the fourth spot with Huawei with a market share of 12.5 percent in the third quarter. The US tech titan's iPhone production increased only 2 percent quarter-on-quarter to 42 million units in the third quarter due to the delayed release of new iPhone 12.

Global smartphone production jumped 20 percent quarter-on-quarter to 336 million units in the third quarter, TrendForce added.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, TrendForce projected worldwide smartphone production to reach 351 million units, up 4 percent from the previous quarter.

In the fourth quarter, TrendForce expected Apple to become the top smartphone producer with 74.1 million units for a 21.1 percent market share, followed by Samsung with 62 million units for a 17.7 percent share.

Oppo and Xiaomi were estimated to produce 47 million and 46 million smartphones, respectively, with Vivo rising as the fifth-largest smartphone producer with 35 million units in the fourth quarter.

Huawei was expected to make only around 30 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, down 30 percent from the previous quarter, due to US sanctions. (Yonhap)