In Gartner’s latest quarterly report, the research house saw a decline in smartphone sales to end users with nearly 408 million units  a 5.6 percent decline over the fourth quarter compared to 2016. Despite the drop, overall sales for the total year was still an increment.

The slower uptake was attributed to two main factors first, upgrades from feature phones to smartphones have slowed down due to a lack of quality “ultra-low-cost” smartphones and users preferring to buy quality feature phones. Second, replacement smartphone users are choosing quality models and keeping them longer, lengthening the replacement cycle of smartphones.

Samsung redeemed itself with the Galaxy S8 and Note series which helped boost unit sales up after the no show of one of its flagship models. Gartner predicts a challenging year for the phone maker due to tough competition from Chinese manufacturers. Meanwhile Apple’s total sales dropped for the year despite growth in the last quarter, however the three new iPhones launched late in the year will only see unit sales increase in the first quarter of 2018.

Huawei and Xiaomi again showed resilient in growing their market share, new smartphone additions in the quarter, including Mate 10 Lite, Honor 6C Pro and the Mi and Redmi models, helped accelerate growth in the emerging Asia/Pacific (APAC) market.

In 2017 as a whole, smartphone sales to end users totaled over 1.5 billion units, an increase of 2.7 percent from 2016. Huawei, ranked No. 3, raised its share in 2017, continuing to gain on Apple. Samsung and Apple are still holding on to the top two position.