(Telecompaper) Global smartphone shipments grew 27 percent annually to reach 295.2 million units in the second quarter of 2014, according to Strategy Analytics. The market researcher estimates that Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi showed the strongest growth, capturing a 5 percent global market share and becoming the world's fifth-largest smartphone vendor. Overall, healthy demand in Asia and Africa in Q2 offset sluggish volumes across North America and Europe, where many operators are moving from handset subsidies to installment payments. Samsung remained the world's largest smartphone vendor, with an estimated 74.5 million phones sold versus 76.0 million a year earlier . However, its market share dipped to 25.2 percent from 32.6 percent a year ago. Apple also lost share, despite growing shipments, accounting for 11.9 percent of the global smartphone market versus 13.4 percent a year ago. Chinese manufacturers were the main winners in the quarter. Huawei strengthened its third place in the market with a 6.8 percent share, up from 4.8 percent a year earlier, Lenovo grew to 5.4 percent from 4.8 and Xiaomi jumped to 5.1 percent from 1.8 percent in the year-earlier period. LG dropped to sixth place, with a share of 4.9 percent versus 5.2 percent in Q2 2013.