Samsung maintained the top spot in the Western Europe smartphone market in the third quarter of the year, a report showed on Thursday, despite sales decline.

The South Korean tech giant shipped 10.3 million smartphones in Western Europe in the July-September period for a 35.6 percent market share, according to industry researcher International Data Corp. (IDC).

The figures were slightly down from a year ago when the company shipped 11 million smartphones for a 35.8 per cent market share, reports Yonhap news agency.

Samsung was followed by Apple which delivered 8.2 million iPhones in the third quarter, up 1.1 per cent from a year earlier, for a 28.5 per cent market share.

Xiaomi moved up to the third spot for the first time after its smartphone shipments grew 151.6 per cent on-year to 3.7 million units for a 12.8 per cent share.

Hit by US export restrictions, Huawei saw its market share drop from 20 per cent to 8.8 per cent in the third quarter after its smartphone shipments plunged 58.7 per cent on-year to 2.5 million units.

The smartphone market in Western Europe declined 6.5 per cent on-year to 28.8 million units, according to IDC.

"Although lockdown restrictions were lifted across Europe, the smartphone market continued to be impacted by the economic environment," it said.

"While consumer spending on smartphones improved slightly, sales of smartphones to enterprises dropped 11.5 per cent year on year as enterprises shifted spending from smartphones to notebooks."

Meanwhile, the tablet market in Western Europe grew 15.6 per cent on-year to 8.2 million units in the third quarter on robust demand from the education sector amid the pandemic.