JERUSALEM, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Smartphone sales of Chinese company Xiaomi in Israel surpassed those of Apple, according to data published Wednesday by GfK market research institute.

According to the figures, in August-September 2018, the number of Xiaomi devices sold in Israel reached second place, after Samsung, dropping Apple to third place.

In August, Xiaomi's sales in Israel reached 18.7 percent of the total sold devices, compared with 15.9 percent of Apple's.

In September, Xiaomi reached 17.8 percent of the devices sold, compared with only 13.9 percent of Apple, which fell nearly three percent since April 2018.

Last year Xiaomi recorded a meteoric jump in Israel reaching third place, though about 2.5 years ago the Chinese brand was almost unknown in the state. The increase in its sales in Israel in 2018 jumped 229 percent, compared with 2017.

China's Huawei is ranked fourth, right after Apple, with 4.8 percent of September's sales, up 1.6 percent from August.

Samsung remained in first place with 49.3 percent of devices sold in September in Israel.

A large rise to 3.9 percent was recorded in sales of the renewed brand Nokia, backed by the Chinese-Finnish HMD Global company. On the other hand, Korea's LG sales in Israel continued to decline.

GfK figures refer to sales in the "open market" only, in electronic chains, in stores and on the internet, and do not include purchases from cellular operators.

However, it is estimated that more than 60 percent of smartphone sales in Israel are currently being made on the open market.