BEIJING (Reuters) -Apple's ( AAPL ) shipments in China grew 0.6% from a year earlier to 10.8 million units in the third quarter amid sluggish demand in China's smartphone market, according to data issued by research firm IDC on Wednesday.

Apple ( AAPL ), which had the second-highest tally of shipments during the period, held a 15.8% market share in the third quarter.

China's total smartphone shipments in the third quarter fell 0.6% from a year earlier to 68.4 million units. In the second quarter, the decline was more pronounced at 4%.

"Apple's ( AAPL ) value-for-money base model iPhone 17 successfully captured (value-seeking customers), helping it to achieve slight growth and a higher ranking than the previous quarter," said Will Wong, a senior smartphone analyst at IDC.

Apple ( AAPL ) was the only brand among China's top three vendors to achieve a growth in shipments during the period, IDC's data showed.

Huawei's shipments eased 1% to 10.4 million units, putting it in third place, while Xiaomi's ( XIACF ) shipments dropped 1.7% to 10 million units, putting it in the fourth position.

Chart-topper Vivo's shipments fell 7.8% from a year earlier to 11.8 million units.

IDC said China's smartphone market is expected to improve early in the fourth quarter thanks to some flagship product launches that started last month.

(Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Thomas Derpinghaus.)