Chinese smartphone makers Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo have occupied three positions among a ranking of the world's top five largest smartphone vendors by shipments in the third quarter of this year, according to a recent report from the market consultancy Gartner on Monday.

Samsung took the crown in the ranking with sales of 80.8 million units to gain 22 percent of the global market share, followed by Huawei with sales at 51.83 million units to grab 14.1 percent of the market share.

Xiaomi made a strong surge of 34.9 percent year-on-year by selling 44.41 million units in Q3 to account for 12.1 percent of the market share, surpassing Apple to rank third among the top five.

Apple and Oppo came in fourth and fifth, with shipments of 40.5 million units and 29.89 million units, respectively.

Gartner said worldwide smartphone shipments reached 366 million units in the third quarter, falling 5.7 percent from a year earlier.

"Early signs of recovery can be seen in a few markets, including parts of the mature Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions. Near normal conditions in China improved smartphone production to fill in the supply gap in the third quarter, which benefited sales to some extent," said Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner.