Smartphones made in China took a larger share of the Russian market in January than a year ago. [Photo: xsnet.cn]

Smartphones from Chinese companies now outsell those made in other countries, according to the latest data.

According to sales figures, South Korea's Samsung remains the world's largest smartphone maker with a share of 20.7 percent of all devices sold.

In second place is Apple of the USA with 13.7 percent market share.

The statistics, reported by specialist publication The Register, show that China's Huawei, Oppo and Vivo are in very close third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.

If you add their totals together, then the Chinese manufacturers have a clear market lead globally.

What's more, the Chinese companies have made staggering progress over the last year, taking a full four percent of sales away from Apple and Samsung.

Sales of Apple's iPhone in the key Chinese market slipped by nearly nine percent in the first three months of 2017.

However, the firm's iPhone 7 models did manage to remain the most popular smartphone sold in China over the period, with a market share of just under 4 percent.