Apple and Samsung were dead even when it came to worldwide smartphone sales in the last three months of 2014, with each company selling 74.5 million handsets around the globe to capture a shade under 20 percent of the total marketshare.
For those keeping track at home, the last time the two were tied so evenly was Q4 2011 — shortly following the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and just after Tim Cook took over as CEO.
After Apple and Samsung, Lenovo and Huawei came third and fourth place when it comes to sales, with 6.5 percent and 6.3 percent of the market respectively. After that, every other company scrapped it out for the remaining 48 percent of users.
On paper at least, Samsung is the year’s winner — having sold a larger number of smartphones prior to Apple’s final iPhone 6-fueled dash at the year’s close. However, looks can be deceptive, as there’s no doubt Samsung struggled considerably in 2014 — as flagging mobile sales and an inflated sense of demand for its products hit the company hard.
Interestingly, when everything is taken into account, in 2014 Samsung saw its first annual profit decline since 2011: when it first took over from Apple as the leading smartphone vendor. Of course, those 2011 days weren’t so good for Samsung, either. A quick peak back in the record books shows how Apple managed to squeeze 51 percent of smartphone profits that year, while Samsung eked out a measly 15 percent.
Source: Strategy Analytics
