ANN/THE STAR – According to experts, Apple has narrowed the distance with long-standing smartphone market leader Samsung, based in South Korea.
In the previous quarter, IDC, an analysis firm, estimated that Samsung sold 59.6 million smartphones, while Apple sold 53.6 million iPhones. These figures result in market shares of 19.7 per cent for Samsung and 17.7 per cent for Apple, making them the two largest vendors in the smartphone market.
In the second quarter, Samsung and Apple were still separated by approximately four percentage points, according to IDC calculations.
The decisive factor for the development in the past quarter was that Samsung’s device sales fell by 8.4 per cent year-on-year, while Apple sold 2.5 per cent more iPhones than in the same period the previous year.
For years, it has been customary for Apple to take the top position in the market in the final quarter of the year after the presentation of new iPhone models. On an annual basis, however, Samsung is traditionally ahead.
In third place, the Chinese provider Xiaomi sold 2.4 per cent more smartphones in the last quarter, according to IDC calculations, and had a market share of 13.7 per cent.
The rising smartphone star of the year is the Chinese company Transsion, which has so far been active primarily in Africa and sold 35 per cent more smartphones last quarter than a year earlier.
With 26 million devices sold and a market share of 8.6 per cent, Transsion came close to its better-known competitor Oppo.
