Strategy Analytics: Apple and Samsung tie for global smartphone supremacy in Q4

According to data from Strategy Analytics, Apple and Samsung were tied for the top spot among global smartphone vendors as each shipped 74.5 million handsets in the fourth quarter. Both rivals controlled 19.6% of the worldwide market during the October-December period. The numbers show two companies moving in opposite directions. Samsung saw its shipments drop from 86 million in the fourth quarter of 2013, while Apple saw its shipments of iPhones soar from 51 million in the previous year. On a percentage basis, Samsung controlled 29.6% of the global market during the fourth quarter of 2013 and Apple owned 17.6%

For all of 2014, Samsung still finished on top with shipments of 317.2 million handsets worldwide, good for 24.7% ownership of the global smartphone market. That was down from 2013's total of 319.8 million, which worked out to a 32.3% slice of the smartphone pie. Apple shipped 192.7 million iPhone units in 2014, up from 153.4 million the year before. Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, says that Samsung might have to consider buying rivals like BlackBerry in order to show growth this year. Apple was led by strong demand for the 4.7-inch Apple iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch Apple iPhone 6 Plus. Both phones allowed Apple to compete with large-screened Android handsets.

Lenovo-Motorola was third with 24.7 million handsets shipped in the fourth quarter, good for 6.5% of the market. Huawei was right behind, shipping 24.1 million units during the three month period. That gave the company a 6.3% share of the global market during the quarter. Global shipments during the quarter rose 31% to 380.1 million smartphones. For the year, 1.3 billion smartphones were shipped with strong growth in China, India and Africa.

Strategy Analytics also released stats related to total mobile phone shipments. For the fourth quarter, Samsung led the way with shipments of  95 million, down from 118 million in the 2013 quarter. Apple snagged the second spot with its 74.5 million shipped iPhones. Microsoft was third with 50.2 million phones shipped. For the year, Samsung remained on top shipping 405 million mobile phones. Microsoft was second with 199.7 million phones in transit.


source: StrategyAnalytics (1), (2)