Apple has officially overtaken Samsung as the leader in global smartphone sales.
In the fourth quarter, Apple reported its best results ever -- selling 74.8 million units, helped by the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, according to a Gartner report released Tuesday.
For the final quarter of 2014, Apple took home a 20.4 percent share of worldwide smartphone sales, up from 17.8 percent during the same quarter in 2013. Over the same period, Samsung's share of the smartphone market, on sales of 73 million units, plummeted to 19.9 percent from 29.5. percent.
Last quarter, Apple sold 74.8 million iPhones to achieve its best quarter ever, Gartner said. Apple's phone lineup, now led by the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, enjoyed heavy demand in the US and China, where sales surged 88 percent and 56 percent, respectively, according to Gartner. The new iPhones spurred many existing owners to upgrade but also convinced buyers looking for big-screened phones to consider Apple as an alternative to Android.
In January, researcher Strategy Analytics had described the fourth-quarter standings as a tie between Samsung and Apple, with both at 20 percent of the global smartphone market. But the momentum was the same -- Apple trending upward and Samsung on the downswing.
Apple's record quarter was a definitive sign that the move to bump up the display size of its smartphone paid off. The company had been losing market share and sales to Samsung, which offered larger-screened phones such as the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note. But the iPhone 6 wasn't the only factor that helped Apple score the top spot. Samsung has also been hit on the low end by budget-friendly smartphones from Chinese vendors such asXiaomi.
"Chinese vendors, such as Huawei and Xiaomi, are continuing to improve their sales in China and other overseas markets, increasing their share in the mid to low-end smartphone market," Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner, said in a press release. "Chinese vendors are no longer followers. They are producing higher quality devices with appealing new hardware features that can rival the more established players in the mobile phone market."
Samsung is trying to win back consumers, recently unveiling its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones. However, analyst say the new phones may not pose too much of a threat to Apple kingship.
Samsung also needs to be weary of Xiaomi who is currently dominating a large part of the smartphone market with phones that have very impressive specs at very affordable rates. If the company is able to work around the patent issues it fears(with apple) and spread around the world(other than Asia), the result may be very disastrous for the South Korean technology giants.
I'm very sentimental about Samsung, but for the first time I gotta admit: When it comes to tech and smart phones, Apple GETS IT-slam dunk style!
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