Huawei, according to Gartner, managed to hold on to its second place, after Samsung and in front of Apple, in the smartphone game. The numbers are referring to the first quarter, before the U.S. issued a ban on the company, and 70 of its affiliates.

Furthermore, Gartner also found that Huawei not only managed to secure its second spot, but has indeed managed to close the gap for the first place, currently held by Samsung. The number one smartphone vendor spot is a goal Huawei publicly discussed several times recently.

Gartner said Samsung retained its top spot in worldwide smartphone sales, achieving a 19.2% market share in the first quarter of 2019. Huawei achieved the highest year-over-year growth among the world’s top five – Samsung, Huawei, Apple and Chinese smartphone makers OPPO and Vivo — Reuters reports

Huawei individually managed to sell 58.4 million smartphones in the first three months of the year, “with growth across all regions”.

Huawei did particularly well in two of its biggest markets, Europe and Greater China, where its smartphone sales grew by 69% and 33%, respectively

The outlook is difficult, to say the least, for Huawei moving forward. As a direct effect of the U.S. ban, many companies have limited, or ceased collaboration with the Chinese tech giant. Some of these companies are crucial for Huawei’s smartphone business, and include Google, Arm, Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and others.