Samsung reclaims spot as world's biggest smartphone manufacturer

Samsung has reclaimed its spot as the top mobile manufacturer globally after a troubled 2016 following the disastrous launch of its Galaxy Note 7.

Market researcher TrendForce found that Samsung had 26.1% of the global production market share for the first three months of 2017. This is up from 18.5% in the last three months of 2016.

Apple came in second place, securing just 16.9% of the global market share. China's Huawei placed third with 11.4%.

Production is down

That said, global smartphone production fell 23% quarter-on-quarter from around 400 million units to 307 million units.

TrendForce noted that this was largely due to China-based manufacturers reducing their output for the season.

Samsung had a rough 2016 following reports of its Galaxy Note 7 devices catching fire through regular use. It eventually blamed the issues on an untested battery that was too big for the casing.

As of January 2017, 96% of all the devices had been recalled. These devices are now to be refurbished and offered as replacement phones, or recycled and stripped for parts.