China's smartphone maker Huawei had surpassed Apple in second quarter sales in 2018, according to a report by the Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker released on Wednesday, reports thepaper.cn.

In the second quarter, Huawei's sales volume increased by 40.9 percent. It shipped 54.2 million units, taking its market share to 15.8 percent up from last year's 11 percent.

Huawei's strong second quarter sales made the company the world's second-largest smartphone vendor. It also marks the first time in eight years that Apple, which shipped 41.3 million units, has dropped to third place in terms of global market share.

Samsung still takes the lead in the ranking, delivering 71.5 million units.

The report also revealed that Xiaomi's market share in the second quarter was 9.3 percent, up 48.8 percent year on year.

In terms of the overall market figures, smartphone vendors shipped a total of 342 million units during the second quarter of the year. This is a decrease of 1.8 percent year on year. Shipments have now fallen for three consecutive quarters.