SHANGHAI - Global smartphone shipments rose 9.1 percent quarter on quarter to 332 million units in the third quarter of the year, global research firm TrendForce said Wednesday.

Chinese phone makers led the shipments with 150 million units following stronger quarter-on-quarter growth of 16.3 percent, TrendForce said in a report.

With the global economy projected to decelerate in the second half of 2015, smartphone shipments are expected to remain weak until mid-2016, said TrendForce analyst Avril Wu.

TrendForce projected that the global smartphone shipments would grow 9.3 percent in 2015 and 7.7 percent in 2016.

Emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and India are now the major battlegrounds for vendors as developed markets have become fairly saturated. Increasing competition would lead to a fall in profits, Wu said.

Samsung remained the top brand, accounting for 25 percent of global shipments in the third quarter. However, facing fierce competition from Apple in the high-end market and Chinese firms in the low- and middle-end, Samsung is likely to report its first ever annual decline in smartphone shipments this year.

Shipments of Samsung phone are projected to decline 1 percent to 323.5 million units in 2015, while rival Apple is likely to ship 223.7 million iPhones with 16-percent growth, according to the report.

Huawei, in third place, has become the first Chinese brand to reach 100 million units in annual shipments.