Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei continues its surge into the mobile market. Huawei may not be a popular brand in the Western market, but it is gaining a massive following elsewhere. On Friday, Huawei announced that its flagship smartphone, the P9, has reached the nine million mark in terms of worldwide sales.

This massive amount of sales helped Huawei to retain its position as the third biggest phone brand in the world in the third quarter of the year, according to CNet. What is even more interesting about this is that Huawei was able to achieve the feat in spite of the current decline in the smartphone market.

According to a report published by IDC Research, Samsung is still the reigning smartphone manufacturer in the world with 72.5 million units shipped which represents a 20 percent market share. Apple is trailing in the second spot with 45.5 million units shipped and holds 12.5 percent market share. Huawei is inching closer to the two tech giants at the third spot with 33.6 million units shipped and a market share of 9.3 percent.

In terms of year-over-year change, both Samsung and Apple's shipment have dropped. Compared to last year's third quarter report, Samsung's output dropped by a massive 13.5 percent, while Apple's output dropped by 5.3 percent. On the other hand, Huawei's output increased by 23 percent.

Market analysts agree that Huawei's meteoric rise can be attributed to its affordable, yet premium-grade range of devices. Huawei is focusing its marketing efforts on Asia, with China as its main market. Huawei is also capitalizing on developing Asian markets with huge market potential like India.

On the other hand, some analysts claim that Huawei's growth can also be attributed to the recent problems faced by the biggest Android smartphone manufacturer, Samsung. The South Korean tech giant has faced a massive backlash following the battery issue that caused its Galaxy Note 7 to explode.