This was six percentage points up on the same period the previous year.

In China, Android accounted for nearly four out of five smartphones purchased, and captured 68.5% of sales in the US.

When measured from a brand rather than an operating system perspective, Apple is second across Europe, China, and the US. The iPhone SE made the top 10 smartphones sold in Great Britain, France, China, and the US during the latest three-month period.

Lauren Guenveur, consumer insight director for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, said: “Android has continued to achieve year-on-year growth across most regions, most notably in Italy, where it gained 10.2 percentage points, and now accounts for 80.9% of smartphone sales in the three months ending May 2016.

“That does not necessarily mean that iOS has continued to decline, but rather returned to growth in both France and Great Britain. In France and Great Britain, iOS share grew period-on-period, accounting for 21% and 36% of those markets, respectively.”

In Europe’s largest five markets, Huawei has emerged as the third largest smartphone brand behind Samsung and Apple, growing 7.4% year-on-year to account for 12.5% of smartphone sales in the three months ending May 2016.