Samsung trumps Apple thanks to the hugely popular Galaxy S21 5G series
Although we're still a couple of days away from the end of the year's first quarter and most likely at least a few weeks away from the release of a new batch of global smartphone market reports, Strategy Analytics seems to have disclosed some early preliminary data on the industry's February 2021 sales numbers.
According to The Morung Express, an independent English language newspaper based in India, the aforementioned market research firm found that Samsung managed to (barely) exceed Apple's shipment figures last month, recouping the world heavyweight title it lost during the final quarter of 2020.
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A grand total of 24 million Galaxy handsets were reportedly sold worldwide this February, compared to "only" 23 million iPhones. That created a tiny gap between Samsung and Apple's 23.1 and 22.2 percent market shares respectively, with Xiaomi ranking a fairly distant third at 11.5 percent and Vivo and Oppo following closely behind their domestic arch-rival with solid 10.6 and 8.5 percentage points of their own.
That essentially means the order of the first two global smartphone vendors from Q4 2020 is now reversed, and the same goes for the mobile industry's fourth and fifth-largest OEMs by shipments. But the quarter is not over yet, and Samsung may have a hard time recovering all the lost ground from January this year.
Apple impressively managed to crush Samsung 25.4 to 15.6 percent during the first 31 days of the year in terms of smartphone market share, taking full advantage of the "late" Galaxy S21 family launch. That's late in comparison with the iPhone 12 series, of course, as the S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra actually saw daylight early when you consider the family's history.
While both 5G-enabled high-end lineups proved quite successful, the S21 trio presumably helped Samsung come out on top with its novelty factor and various killer deals. The Korea-based tech giant had a tremendous month compared to both February 2020 and February 2019, boosting its overall sales figures by 26 and 12 percent respectively.
All that being said, Samsung can't be happy with its tiny aforementioned advantage over the industry's silver medalist, which somehow improved its global iPhone shipments in February 2021 by a colossal 74 and 35 percent from the same period of 2020 and 2019 respectively.
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