China-based smartphone vendors will continue to be the major players in the global smartphone market in 2017, with Huawei, Oppo and Vivo to take the third, fourth and fifth positions in the vendor's rankings in the year, according to Digitimes Research.

Including Huawei, Oppo and Vivo,11 out of the top-20 global smartphone vendors will eventually come from China, said Digitimes Research.

Samsung Electronics will continue to serve as the number one vendor, but its lead in volume shipments against the first runner-up, Apple, will be narrowed to 80 million units.

Leveraging its cooperation ties with telecom operators in a number of countries and its comprehensive product lines including notebooks, tablets and smartphones, Huawei will have a better position to ramp up its smartphone sales in overseas markets as compared to Oppo and Vivo, Digitimes Research added.

Three India-based smartphone vendors will be included in the top-20 vendor list, with Micromax taking the twelfth position, and Intex thirteenth.

Taiwan-based Asustek Computer will rank seventeenth, but will have challenges moving into the high-end segment. Meanwhile, HTC will continue to struggle to heat up once again its smartphone business and will see its ranking fall to twentieth, Digitimes Research noted.