Samsung Electronics Co. was the leading smartphone market vendor in Egypt in the second quarter of the year, a report showed Thursday.

Samsung accounted for a 23.8 percent share of Egypt's smartphone market in the April-June period, beating Chinese brands Oppo and Xiaomi to take the top position, according to market researcher International Data Corp. (IDC).

Egypt's smartphone market grew in the second quarter despite the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to IDC. The market expanded 2.2 percent on-quarter to 2.88 million units.

In the second quarter, the portion of ultra-low end smartphones priced below US$100 in Egypt jumped to 30.5 percent from 17.5 percent a year earlier, while devices with screen sizes between 6.5 and 7 inches accounted for a 45.4 percent market share following a 12.4 percentage point on-quarter increase.

"The price band and screen size trends indicate that consumers were opting for more affordable phones due to tighter budgets, while vendors supplied affordable models with higher specs to cope with challenging sales conditions during the pandemic," Taher Abdel Hameed, a senior research analyst at IDC, said.