Apple and Samsung are still the most popular.

But their dominance is under threat from the largest smartphone market in the world: China.

Global smartphone sales declined last year for the first time since 2009,

but the overall value of the Chinese mobile market still managed to grow by 11 percent.

And Chinese brands Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO and Huawei led the way in growth.

Just take a look around at the world's biggest mobile conference.

There are Chinese brands everywhere.

So we asked these smartphone enthusiasts

what makes Chinese phones so successful?

In China they have a very large ecosystem of supply chain

so any component that is acquired you have so many alternatives.

They continue selling and making good products with a good level of price and quality of their products.

Samsung have just released their new smartphone—the S9.

Back in 2013, the Korean brand was the number one selling phone in China.

One out of every five smartphones sold in China was a Samsung.

Now it ranks dead last among the major brands in China

with around 1% of the market share.

Some of that can be attributed to the Galaxy Note 7 exploding battery scandal of 2016.

But China's homegrown smartphones would have likely taken the lead anyway

as they grow more advanced and meet Chinese consumers' needs more quickly.

Presence, marketing, manufacturing, everything is involved.

The supply chain in China is really big.

Now, even if they are starting to enter European markets, they are already famous.

People appreciate their products.

One of those Chinese smartphone makers is Xiaomi.

It was 2017's fastest growing smartphone brand thanks to strong sales in China and India

where it became the country's number one smartphone.

It's even begun tackling the Western world, opening its own stores in Europe.

To sell at the very affordable, very attractive price to the consumer.

That's our key business model, we will not change that.

And then there's Huawei.

The world's third biggest smartphone brand saw its sales rise by 19% year-on-year

giving the company a fifth of the Chinese smartphone market.

It's actually quite a unique company in that we own the entire end-to-end spectrum.

So every aspect of communication, we at Huawei Technologies have a footprint in it.

But whether these Chinese tech companies can maintain their momentum

will have less and less to do with smartphones, and more with the next generation of innovation.

This is Huawei's very own driverless car, and it's all operated by this smartphone.

Autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and 5G

are the next battlegrounds for the world's top smartphone makers