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Samsung Widens Gap Over Apple in Worldwide Smartphone Market
The latest numbers from market research firm Strategy Analytics reveal that Samsung increased its lead over Apple as the world's largest smartphone maker, after shipping 81.3 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of the 2015 calendar year. Apple announced earlier this week that it sold a record 74.8 million iPhones during the same three-month period encompassing the busy holiday shopping season.
Global smartphone shipments grew 12 percent annually from 1.28 billion in 2014 to a record 1.44 billion in 2015, according to the data. Samsung and Apple contributed 319.7 million and 231.5 million smartphone sales respectively to that worldwide total, while Huawei, Lenovo-Motorola, and Xiaomi rounded off the top five smartphone makers. All other vendors collectively shipped 637.5 million smartphones in 2015.
Samsung led the fourth quarter with 20.1 percent market share, a slight increase over its 19.6 percent market share in the year-ago quarter. Conversely, Apple's fourth quarter market share was 18.5 percent, a slight decline from its 19.6 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2014. Huawei, Lenovo-Motorola and Xiaomi had market shares of 8.1 percent, 5 percent and 4.8 percent respectively.
In the year-ago quarter, Apple matched Samsung's 74.5 million smartphones shipped on the strength of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but its South Korean rival has since pulled ahead again. The comparison is largely unbalanced, however, as Samsung sells dozens of different smartphone models worldwide, while Apple currently only sells the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone 5s.
Apple expects iPhone sales will likely decline in the March quarter, marking the first year-over-year decline since the smartphone was released over eight years ago. The decline will be realized if Apple sells fewer than 61.2 million iPhones this quarter, ending in late March. iPhone growth in the just-announced first fiscal quarter of 2016 was the slowest since the smartphone's introduction in 2007.
Strategy Analytics has also published smartphone data for the Chinese market, where Apple trails closely behind Xiaomi and Huawei.
Global smartphone shipments grew 12 percent annually from 1.28 billion in 2014 to a record 1.44 billion in 2015, according to the data. Samsung and Apple contributed 319.7 million and 231.5 million smartphone sales respectively to that worldwide total, while Huawei, Lenovo-Motorola, and Xiaomi rounded off the top five smartphone makers. All other vendors collectively shipped 637.5 million smartphones in 2015.
Samsung led the fourth quarter with 20.1 percent market share, a slight increase over its 19.6 percent market share in the year-ago quarter. Conversely, Apple's fourth quarter market share was 18.5 percent, a slight decline from its 19.6 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2014. Huawei, Lenovo-Motorola and Xiaomi had market shares of 8.1 percent, 5 percent and 4.8 percent respectively.
In the year-ago quarter, Apple matched Samsung's 74.5 million smartphones shipped on the strength of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but its South Korean rival has since pulled ahead again. The comparison is largely unbalanced, however, as Samsung sells dozens of different smartphone models worldwide, while Apple currently only sells the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone 5s.
Apple expects iPhone sales will likely decline in the March quarter, marking the first year-over-year decline since the smartphone was released over eight years ago. The decline will be realized if Apple sells fewer than 61.2 million iPhones this quarter, ending in late March. iPhone growth in the just-announced first fiscal quarter of 2016 was the slowest since the smartphone's introduction in 2007.
Strategy Analytics has also published smartphone data for the Chinese market, where Apple trails closely behind Xiaomi and Huawei.
Tags: Samsung, Strategy Analytics
[ 485 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
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40 months ago
That number will go up even higher this year once Apple removes the headphone jack from the iPhone 7.
40 months ago
Apple is doomed.
C'mon Timmy, you can do better.
Knew removing headphone jack would cause problems.
Bye bye Apple stock.
Apple needs to break off its partnership with Samsung.
Steve Jobs wouldn't have allowed this.
Jony is obsessed with thinness instead of bigger battery.
Beats are crappy headphones.
OLED is better than LCD.
OLED has burn-in problems.
iPhone 5s was the best design.
Antenna bands are ugly.
1GB of ram isn't enough.
16GB base model is stupid.
5400 RPM spinning drive is stupid.
T-Mobile is disrupting the industry.
Have I forgotten anything?
C'mon Timmy, you can do better.
Knew removing headphone jack would cause problems.
Bye bye Apple stock.
Apple needs to break off its partnership with Samsung.
Steve Jobs wouldn't have allowed this.
Jony is obsessed with thinness instead of bigger battery.
Beats are crappy headphones.
OLED is better than LCD.
OLED has burn-in problems.
iPhone 5s was the best design.
Antenna bands are ugly.
1GB of ram isn't enough.
16GB base model is stupid.
5400 RPM spinning drive is stupid.
T-Mobile is disrupting the industry.
Have I forgotten anything?
40 months ago
Since most of Samsung's sales are cheap low-end models, I don't think Apple is too threatened.
40 months ago
Apple is doomed.
C'mon Timmy, you can do better.
Knew removing headphone jack would cause problems.
Bye bye Apple stock.
Apple needs to break off its partnership with Samsung.
Steve Jobs wouldn't have allowed this.
Jony is obsessed with thinness instead of bigger battery.
Beats are crappy headphones.
OLED is better than LCD.
OLED has burn-in problems.
iPhone 5s was the best design.
Antenna bands are ugly.
1GB of ram isn't enough.
16GB base model is stupid.
5400 RPM spinning drive is stupid.
Have I forgotten anything?
40 months ago
I don't know how you can publish this article in good consciousness without mentioning that Samsung makes almost no profits or loses money on each of those units sold. That kind of matters. Apple could sell each of their phones at half price and quadroople their shipments but that be idiotic.
40 months ago
Disappointing. As much as a blatant copycat firm they are, I do not believe they should be enjoying the success they have been experiencing.
I hate it when cheaters win.
Try to enjoy your iDevices. This is not a soccer games. 2 companies making tons of money and not a dime is going to your account, so don't sweat it.
40 months ago
Doesn't matter without context. You can't compare without factoring price. How many of those units are Samsung's flagships? How many were given away as free upgrades by carriers?
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