Data shows that Samsung has now overtaken Apple in smartphones sale worldwide. According to new data from Strategy Analytics, at the end of the March quarter, Samsung had sold 83.2 million smartphones while Apple sold 61 million iPhones.
“Samsung continued to face challenges in Asia and elsewhere, but its global performance has stabilized sufficiently well this quarter to overtake Apple and recapture first position as the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume,” Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston told Reuters.
In the chart above, Samsung accounted for 24.1% of the smartphone market during the period, down from 31% a year before. Meanwhile, Apple jumped from 15.3% in the March 2014 quarter to 17.7% in the same period this year.
Lenovo-Motorola comes a distant third with 18 million in sales while others (a combination of other smartphone makers) recorded 164 million in sales. Overall, 345 million smartphones were estimated to have been sold in the first quarter of 2015.
The news is not that rosy for Samsung though as it reported that its net profit fell 39% in the first quarter of this year and this marks a sixth consecutive quarterly decline according to a CNBC report. This could be as a result of “fierce” competition from other Asian players like Xiaomi in China and Micromax in India.
In the African market, recent Lumia smartphone releases have seen a surge in sales primarily because of low cost as well other features like dual-SIM capabilities. Other smaller brands (primarily Android) machines from Asia have started seeing gradual growth in sales.
An IDC report shows that Android and iOS controlled 96% of the market. Whether Samsung’s Tizen smartphones have a good market forecast remains to be seen.
On a final note just in case you were wondering how this sales report affects the concerned companies, it would interest you to know that Apple has a market value of over $700b while Samsung is worth about $186b. Google is worth about $382b.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
