Apple couldn’t have asked for better news: Sales of iPhone in urban China accounted for 27.6 percent of the smartphone in that country, according to new data released by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

“There has been a strong appetite for Apple’s products in urban China seen since the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and this has continued into Chinese New Year. China Mobile’s subscribers accounted for 59% of the 27.6% volume share recorded by iOS in the latest period”, reported Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. “Across key global markets Apple’s momentum generally continued from last month, with market share gains in all markets except the US and Japan.”

According to Tamsin Timpson, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Asia, the iPhone 6 was the top selling smartphone for the three months ending in February. Its share rose from 9.5 percent to 10.2 percent. The iPhone 6 Plus was the third best selling phone, coming in behind the Xiaomi RedMI Note.

Timpson noted that with older models still selling strong, Apple was able to capture the top spot, pushing Xiaomi to second place.

Across Europe, Android’s share declined by 2.9 percent year-on-year to 67.6 percent, while iOS rose by 2.9 percentage points.

“In Great Britain, as Samsung prepared the channel for the arrival of the new flagships Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, sales of the Galaxy S5 grew slightly over the previous period and captured 8.7% of smartphone sales keeping this model as the second best selling smartphone after the iPhone 6”, said Dominic Sunnebo, business unit director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe. ”iPhone 6 buyers were mainly attracted to the phone for its reliability/durability (48%) and attractiveness of the design (44%) while Galaxy S5 buyers also valued the phone’s reliability/durability (48%) and that the phone was offered on a good deal on tariff/contract (48%).”

Apple’s share in the US dipped slightly to 38.8 percent from 39.3 percent this time in 2014, according to Kantar.

“The iPhone 6 remained the best selling smartphone with buyers mentioning its screen size (45%), LTE capability (44%) and the reliability and durability of the device (43%) as the key purchase drivers. ”, added Milanesi. While screen size matters to iPhone 6 buyers, it is even more important for iPhone 6 Plus customers as 70% cited screen size as their purchase driver.”