Apple Inc continued to lose market share in China in the second quarter, behind Chinese rivals like Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi Corp, research firm Kantar said yesterday.

Apple took 17.9 percent share in the domestic market in the April-to-June period, down 1.8 percentage points from 19.7 percent a year ago, according to Kantar, a data research subsidiary of WPP. Apple’s share was also behind Huawei’s 25.7 percent and Xiaomi’s 18.5 percent,

“While the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus remain the top selling smartphones, pressure from Huawei’s Mate 8 and P9, Xiaomi’s RedMi Note 3 and Mi 5 and Oppo’s R7 has led to increased competition in the (domestic) market, said Tamsin Timpson, a Kantar researcher.

Huawei shipped 16.6 million smartphones in the first quarter, taking the lion’s share of China’s smartphone market, followed by Oppo, Xiaomi and Apple, according to another research firm Strategy Analytics.

The Chinese market still has great potential for Apple, which is set to release new models next month, Kantar added.