According to market researcher TrendForce, Samsung won back the top spot with a 26.1 percent market share for the January – March period, gaining from 18.5 percent in the final quarter of 2016.

Apple, the archrival of the South Korean smartphone maker, slid to the second highest with 16.9 percent.

“Samsung’s sales results for its high-end smartphones fell short of expectations in the first quarter as consumers’ confidence in the brand had yet to fully recover from the recall of Galaxy Note 7,” the report said. “Nevertheless, Samsung continued to do very well in the mid-range and low-end segments of the market with the economically priced, high-performing Galaxy J series that sustained Samsung’s shipments and contributed significantly to the expansion of the brand’s overall smartphone production volume.”

Read also: Samsung's Galaxy S8 phone aims to dispel the Note 7 debacle

Global smartphone production volume for the first quarter of 2017 totaled 307 million units, down 23 percent from the previous quarter, largely due to lowered production of smartphone brands based in China, the report said.

Samsung was the only brand that saw positive growth in production volume during the off season of the first quarter.

“There was a rebound from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the first quarter this year as the recall issue came to an end,” said a Samsung spokesman. “The company will boost marketing and sales efforts with the latest Galaxy S8 model for the second quarter.”

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