The China smartphone market grew 5.8% from a year earlier and 3.6% sequentially in the third quarter of 2016, with Oppo and Vivo overtaking Huawei for the first time in the market, according to IDC.

Oppo and Vivo rose because the China market has evolved beyond operator and online driven channels over to an offline structure that dovetails with Oppo and Vivo's strengths, IDC indicated.

There were three key growth phases of the China smartphone market seen in the past few years, IDC identified. The first phase (before 2014) was when it was driven mainly by operators. Samsung, Lenovo and Coolpad led the smartphone market then with the help of huge subsidies offered by operators. In the second phase (2014-2015), with e-commerce booming in China, Xiaomi was one of the first vendors that rode on that e-commerce wave and disrupted the market by selling its phones online through its flash sales. That kicked off another trend as other vendors soon tried to follow suit and created their own online brands and sold their phones through their own websites and that of e-tailers.

The third phase unfolded this 2016, where the share of phones sold online has started to stabilize, IDC said. Oppo and Vivo triumphed due to their strengths in the offline channels especially in tier-3 to -5 cities. That, coupled with their other strengths in marketing and advertising, helped them to see strong growth in the market in the third quarter of 2016.

"Oppo's success is not something that was achieved overnight. Back in the earlier years when vendors depended on operator subsidy to grow, Oppo was clear in its direction and focused on expanding its offline channels. It also had key strengths such as its VOOC fast-charging technology and in the elegant design of its phones. This, coupled with its aggressive marketing tactics, helped it succeed in the market," said Xiaohan Tay, senior market analyst of client devices research for IDC Asia/Pacific.

"Huawei continued its momentum with its P9, and we expect the momentum for Apple to pick up in the fourth quarter of 2016 where we expect its iPhone 7 to do better than the 6s," Tay continued.

"As the growth in online channels stabilizes, many other vendors have expressed interest in increasing their offline channels. However, given the huge amount of cost involved in this, vendors need to focus on targeting key customers in specific cities or provinces where they can find their target audience. Blind expansion may eventually lead to higher risks and losses," Tay noted.

China's smartphone market is forecast to continue to enjoy sequential and on-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2016. For all of the year, the market is set to register a low single-digit on-year increase, according to IDC.