Manila, Aug 8 (IANS): As the Philippines smartphone market witnessed a 30 per cent year-over-year (YoY) shipment growth in the second quarter of 2021, smartphone brand realme emerged as the top brand in the country, a new report said.

According to the market research firm Counterpoint, realme topped the smartphone market in the second quarter with a 21 per cent share in a closely fought race.

"The Philippines smartphone market continues to grow as consumers are rapidly shifting to the smartphone," Debasish Jana, Research Associate, said in a statement.

"Besides OEMs promoting the smartphone ecosystem, the telecom operators are also encouraging consumers to adopt 4G and 5G, leading to more people buying smartphones to avail better connectivity," Jana added.

The newly launched realme 8 series did quite well in the market, but the C series remained the main volume driver for realme.

OPPO came a close second with a 20 per cent share driven by its A series. Samsung and Vivo came third and fourth with 19 per cent and 18 per cent share respectively.

Xiaomi retained its place in the top five by increasing its share to 9 per cent.

The report mentioned that the country's smartphone market has remained resilient aided by strong promotions. Besides, the Philippine economy is booming with a growing middle class and young population pushing the consumer market upwards.

Therefore, despite the rising Covid-19 cases in the country, the smartphone demand in the market remained strong in the second quarter due to the rapid shift away from feature phones.