Dubai: Apple’s record iPhone sales helped it stand head to head with Samsung in the race for smartphone supremacy in the fourth quarter.
The US company has also overtaken Microsoft — which includes Nokia’s devices unit — to become the second largest manufacturer of mobile handsets in the world after Samsung.
The fourth-quarter sales were fuelled by bigger-screen iPhones and the US company is closing the gap with the market leader Samsung.
According to research firm Strategy Analytics, both Apple and Samsung have shipped 74.5 million units in the fourth quarter but for the whole year, Samsung is still number one. Daniel Gleeson, senior analyst, mobile devices at IHS, said in an emailed statement that Apple now sits behind only Samsung in handset shipments despite Apple entering the smartphone phone market late in 2007. Samsung entered the smartphone market in 2006.
“This is a very impressive achievement for a company with the highest average selling price per handset in the industry. Apple sells premium devices for over $600 each,” Gleeson said. Apple has become the largest smartphone maker in China by overtaking Xiaomi. The privately-owned Chinese company Xiaomi overtook Samsung as the largest smartphone vendor in the second quarter of last year. Samsung is now ranked third in China.
Xiaomi entered the smartphone business in 2011 and quickly became the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the third quarter of last year and also became the most valuable tech start-up in the world after it received $1.1 billion funding to value it at more than $46 billion.
Strategy Analytics said in its latest report on fourth-quarter stats that Samsung has sold 95 million mobile phones while Apple sold 74.5 million and Microsoft 50.2 million units.
But for the whole year, Samsung sold 405 million mobile phones while Microsoft sold 199.7 million and Apple 192.7 million units.
Wayne Lam, Senior Analyst, Mobile Electronics at IHS, said that both Samsung and Apple do not have an unassailable position. Samsung is showing signs of weakness with its handset shipments flat for the past two years.
“Apple too must be wary of new competitive threats if it is to maintain its position. Both leaders risk losing share to the fast growing brands from China such as Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei,” Lam said.
While Apple’s ascent is remarkable, he also said that it also serves as a stark reminder of how quickly fortunes can change. Nokia seemed impervious for many years at the top of the market, but has now hit a spiral of decline which led to Nokia to sell its devices business unit to Microsoft in 2014.