The global smartphone market share of South Korea's top smartphone maker Samsung Electronics Co. edged up in the first quarter of this year, a report showed Wednesday.

Samsung took up 24.1 percent of the world's smartphone market in the January-March period in terms of revenue, a slight increase from 21.9 percent posted in Q4 of 2015, according to the latest research by industry tracker Strategy Analytics. 

LG Electronics Inc. saw its shares go down 0.6 percentage points to reach 2.7 percent, standing in the sixth spot, according to the report.

Market leader Apple Inc., meanwhile, accounted for 40.7 percent of the global smartphone market in Q1, down from 46.2 percent in the previous quarter, the report said.

Three out of top 5 spots were taken by Chinese players -- Huawei with 6.5 percent, Oppo with 4.1 percent and Vivo with 2.8 percent, posing a serious threat to current market leaders Samsung and Apple, Strategy Analytics said. (Yonhap)