New York, March 31 (IANS): China-based Huawei, currently the world's second largest Android smartphone manufacturer, will dethrone Samsung to become Apple's main challenger in years to come, American analyst firm Drexel Hamilton said on Friday.

Apple had a record fourth quarter in 2016 shipping 78.3 million iPhones globally, surpassing Samsung in overall smartphone market share.

Huawei shipments reached record 139 million units with 28 per cent year-on-year growth, Counterpoint Research said earlier this year.

India registered 109.1 million units of smartphone shipments with a marginal 5.2 per cent annual growth in 2016.

With a wide pipeline of products to cater to various market segments, both Huawei and Honor have put the needs of the Indian consumer first and have focused on channel, retail, brand, marketing and services, to strengthen the business base and streamline operations and customer service.

Samsung continued to lead the Indian smartphone market with 25.1 per cent share despite a 13.1 per cent sequential decline in the fourth quarter of 2016. But Samsung's annual shipments grew 3.2 per cent in 2016, driven majorly by the J-series.