Research firm Gartner says Apple surpassed Samsung to become the number one smartphone vendor in Q4, 2014.
Apple has finally beaten Samsung Electronics to become the top smartphone vendor in Q4, 2014. Samsung Electronics which was the market leader since 2011, has seen a steep decline in market share over the last year, while Apple saw record sales with its latest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Market Research firm Gartner says that Apple shipped 74.8 million iPhones in Q4,2014 while Samsung sold 73 million smartphones in Q4 last year. Samsung which was a market leader since 2011 lost 10 percent of the market share. Overall in 2014, 1.2 billion smartphones were shipped, which accounted for two-thirds of the global mobile phone sales.
"Samsung's performance in the smartphone market deteriorated further in the fourth quarter of 2014, when it lost nearly 10 percentage points in market share," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Samsung continues to struggle to control its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013. This downward trend shows that Samsung's share of profitable premium smartphone users has come under significant pressure."
"With Apple dominating the premium phone market and the Chinese vendors increasingly offering quality hardware at lower prices, it is through a solid ecosystem of apps, content and services unique to Samsung devices that Samsung can secure more loyalty and longer-term differentiation at the high end of the market," said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner.
Samsung has been trying to reclaim its smartphone sales and has unveiled the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones, its most striking devices with an all metal unibody design till date. The smartphone will be launched globally on April 10th and may help Samsung win back some market share in Q2 of this year.
Earlier, multiple reports claimed Samsung had been losing grip in the market. Back in India, it is facing a strong competition from the likes of Micromax and Chinese brands like Xiaomi.
Table 1
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 4Q14 (Thousands of Units)
|
Company |
4Q14 Units |
4Q14 Market Share (%) |
4Q13 Units |
4Q13 Market Share (%) |
|
Apple |
74,832 |
20.4 |
50,224 |
17.8 |
|
Samsung |
73,032 |
19.9 |
83,317 |
29.5 |
|
Lenovo* |
24,300 |
6.6 |
16,465 |
5.8 |
|
Huawei |
21,038 |
5.7 |
16,057 |
5.7 |
|
Xiaomi |
18,582 |
5.1 |
5,598 |
2.0 |
|
Others |
155,701.6 |
42.4 |
111,204.3 |
39.3 |
|
Total |
367,484.5 |
100.0 |
282,866.2 |
100.0 |
Source: Gartner (March 2015)
*The results for Lenovo include sales of mobile phones by Lenovo and Motorola.
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2014 (Thousands of Units)
|
Company |
2014 Units |
2014 Market Share (%) |
2013 Units |
2013 Market Share (%) |
|
Samsung |
307,597 |
24.7 |
299,795 |
30.9 |
|
Apple |
191,426 |
15.4 |
150,786 |
15.5 |
|
Lenovo* |
81,416 |
6.5 |
57,424 |
5.9 |
|
Huawei |
68,081 |
5.5 |
46,609 |
4.8 |
|
LG Electronics |
57,661 |
4.6 |
46,432 |
4.8 |
|
Others |
538,710 |
43.3 |
368,675 |
38.0 |
|
Total |
1,244,890 |
100.0 |
969,721 |
100.0 |
Source: Gartner (March 2015)
*The results for Lenovo include sales of mobile phones by Lenovo and Motorola.
Read: Micromax beats Samsung to become India's top smartphone vendor: Canalys [Updated]
Source: Gartner
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