Smartphone market share of Samsung and Apple decreased in Q1 2014, said Strategy Analytics.
Samsung, the # vendor, smartphone share decreased to 31.2 percent in Q1 2014 from 32.4 percent in Q1 2013. Apple market share in the smartphone space dipped to 15.3 percent from 17.5 percent.
Huawei, the #3 smartphone maker, retained its smartphone share at 4.7 percent. Its Chinese phone rival Lenovo increased smartphone share to 4.7 percent from 3.9 percent.
Interestingly, all these four device makers – Samsung, Apple, Huawei and Lenovo – increased their smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2014.
The Korean devices vendor Samsung increased shipments to 89 million from 69.4 million, Apple 43.7 million from 37.4 million, Huawei 13.4 million from 10 million and Lenovo 13.3 percent from 8.4 million, said Strategy Analytics.
Strategy Analytics said that the global smartphone shipments grew 33 percent annually from 213.9 million units in Q1 2013 to 285.0 million in Q1 2014.
Smartphone growth was mixed on a regional basis during the quarter, with healthy demand in Asia counterbalanced by sluggish volumes across North America due to changes in the operator subsidy mix.
Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said: “This was Samsung’s first annual market share loss in the smartphone category since Q4 2009. Samsung continues to face tough competition from Apple at the higher-end of the smartphone market and from Chinese brands like Huawei at the lower-end.”
Apple remains strong in the premium smartphone segment, but a lack of presence in the entry-level category continues to cost it lost volumes in fast-growing emerging markets such as Latin America.
The combined global smartphone market share of Samsung and Apple has slipped from 50 percent in Q1 2013 to 47 percent in Q1 2014.
There is more competition than ever coming from the second-tier smartphone brands.
Huawei is expanding in Europe, while Lenovo continues to grow aggressively outside China into new regions such as Russia.
