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As it has for several quarters now, Apple continues to trail the overall smartphone market's booming growth, with the company's 16.8 percent year-over-year growth in the first quarter registering as the lowest among top five vendors in a market that grew by 28.6 percent as a whole, according to a new report from research firm IDC. Market leader Samsung also trailed the broader market's growth as Huawei, Lenovo, and LG all jockeyed for position in the closely contested third through fifth spots in the rankings.

idc_1Q14_smartphones.jpg
Worldwide smartphone shipments in 1Q14 in millions of units (Source: IDC)
Apple reached a new first quarter record, breaching the 40 million unit mark. The company saw double-digit growth in Japan as well as across multiple developing markets, including Brazil, China, India, and Indonesia. Still, this made for the lowest year-over-year improvement among the leading vendors. What remains to be seen is when - not if - Apple's rumored large-screen models will arrive on the market, filling a gap in the company's portfolio that has been exploited by the competition.
In the overall mobile phone market, Apple again outperformed most of the competition as feature phone sales continue to dwindle. With Apple's all-smartphone lineup taking nearly 10 percent of the overall market in the quarter, the company is within striking distance of Nokia, which garnered 11.3 percent of the market as it continues to be hit hard by the decline in feature phone sales and instability as it has shifted from Symbian to Windows Phone. Just days ago, Microsoft completed its acquisition of Nokia's phone unit, officially uniting software and hardware in what has been a close partnership over the last several years.

idc_1Q14_phones.jpg
Worldwide mobile phone shipments in 1Q14 in millions of units (Source: IDC)
Apple last week announced record March quarter earnings on the strength of its 43.7 million iPhones shipped. The iPhone continues to drive Apple's overall financial performance, representing 57 percent of the company's revenue for the quarter.

Article Link: Apple Again Trails Market in Smartphone Growth, but Closes on Nokia in Overall Mobile Phones
 

bobringer

macrumors member
May 20, 2004
80
11
And Honda sells more cars than Audi.

The point here is?

(I'll tell you what the point is... the industry needs to stop treating this as one giant monolithic market. It doesn't work that way in other industries... why does it work that way in the phone business)?

Apple's profits in the phone business are rising. Samsung's profits in the phone business got CUT IN HALF over the past year.

Yet the problem is... Apple's market share?
 

Born Again

macrumors 601
May 12, 2011
4,023
5,216
Norcal
When you need to compare apple to Nokia you know macrumors is reaching for some positive.

You don't need to spin the news macrumors just report the bigger headline

Apple is doomed
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,307
Nokia is getting slammed, I think if Apple can ready the iPhone 6 sooner then later the numbers will be even more positive.
 

the8thark

macrumors 601
Apr 18, 2011
4,628
1,735
Apple is quality and Samsung is quantity. This is no surprise. I'd rather keep Apple focusing on quality as they are now. Samsung can keep making it's large quantities of questionable quality phones.

And Apple wins the profits from phones war also.

[edit] Samsung does make some ok phones. But a large number of them are not that good at all.

----------

Apple's profits in the phone business are rising. Samsung's profits in the phone business got CUT IN HALF over the past year.

Yet the problem is... Apple's market share?

This is the main point here. Apple clearly wins this war.
 
Last edited:

ValSalva

macrumors 68040
Jun 26, 2009
3,783
259
Burpelson AFB
I have a feeling these numbers will improve this fall when Apple almost certainly releases a larger sized and new form factor iPhone.
 

Marlon948

macrumors newbie
Apr 30, 2014
1
0
Apple to Apple Comparrison

Apple "SOLD" 43.7M iPhones, Samsung "SHIPPED" 85M Smartphones thus not an accurate comparrison.
 

BaldiMac

macrumors G3
Jan 24, 2008
8,745
10,845
Apple "SOLD" 43.7M iPhones, Samsung "SHIPPED" 85M Smartphones thus not an accurate comparrison.

Nope. Apple shipped 43.7M iPhones, Samsng was estimated to have "SHIPPED" 85M Smartphones. Still not accurate, but an apples to apples comparison.
 

osofast240sx

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2011
2,539
16
I have a feeling these numbers will improve this fall when Apple almost certainly releases a larger sized and new form factor iPhone.

Apple's larger iPhone will be the ultimate game changer! it's going to be hilarious to see how the numbers are then.
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,101
19,603
We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, EVERYBODY has to lose.

Apple does their own thing. They shouldn't stop now. Keep moving forward and don't look back.
 

Mattsasa

macrumors 68020
Apr 12, 2010
2,339
744
Minnesota
Aren't the majority of smartphones Samsung is selling the galaxy series, which is just as expensive, if not more expensive then iPhone.

So samsung shipped twice as many smartphones as apple, meaning Samsung made like double revenue as apple ?
 

69Mustang

macrumors 604
Jan 7, 2014
7,895
15,043
In between a rock and a hard place
And Honda sells more cars than Audi.

The point here is?

(I'll tell you what the point is... the industry needs to stop treating this as one giant monolithic market. It doesn't work that way in other industries... why does it work that way in the phone business)?

Apple's profits in the phone business are rising. Samsung's profits in the phone business got CUT IN HALF over the past year.

Yet the problem is... Apple's market share?

Bolded from your quote: That's completely wrong. A cursory google search will reveal reports by manufacturer/vendor in multiple industries.

The problem is you're looking for the wrong report. A detailed breakdown is what you're requesting. Fortunately the report exists. Unfortunately, it's most likely behind a paywall. It's just waiting for you to satisfy your curiosity with a credit card.;)
 

braddick

macrumors 68040
Jun 28, 2009
3,921
1,018
Encinitas, CA
If you believed in reincarnation and you knew in your next life you were going to return as a smart phone, which phone would you want to be?

That's really the only intelligent question we should be asking ourselves here.
 

DogGone

macrumors member
Jul 18, 2007
41
46
I am pleasantly surprised that Apple increased its global mobile phone share by a full 1% YOY.
Considering that the market is being flooded with cheap smartphone then it is great to see Apple's share growing. Show that customers who had earlier bought cheaper phones are trading up to the iPhone.
 

BaldiMac

macrumors G3
Jan 24, 2008
8,745
10,845
Aren't the majority of smartphones Samsung is selling the galaxy series, which is just as expensive, if not more expensive then iPhone.

So samsung shipped twice as many smartphones as apple, meaning Samsung made like double revenue as apple ?

Samsung's smartphone ASP is about half of the iPhone.
 

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,084
31,015
When you need to compare apple to Nokia you know macrumors is reaching for some positive.

You don't need to spin the news macrumors just report the bigger headline

Apple is doomed

Apple isn't doomed, you're clueless if you think smartphone market share is a meaningful metric.
 

proline

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2012
630
1
I am pleasantly surprised that Apple increased its global mobile phone share by a full 1% YOY.
Considering that the market is being flooded with cheap smartphone then it is great to see Apple's share growing. Show that customers who had earlier bought cheaper phones are trading up to the iPhone.
Indeed. The term 'smartphone' market is a joke based on arbitrary distinctions. There will soon be only one 'phone' market and in that market Apple's share is and always has been rising steadily and is now up to 10%.

These reports have been able to suppress this story the last few years by continually moving more and more phones into the 'smartphone' category to make said category grow faster than Apple to make Apple look bad. This includes many Android devices with no data plans. However, within the next year they will run out of dumb phones to reclassify as smartphones and Apple's true growth will become impossible to hide. I'll make some popcorn...
 

ghost of jobs

macrumors regular
Apr 4, 2014
223
0
If you believed in reincarnation and you knew in your next life you were going to return as a smart phone, which phone would you want to be?

That's really the only intelligent question we should be asking ourselves here.

HTC one m8 obviously.. the best phone on the market.. any other questions?..
 

bobringer

macrumors member
May 20, 2004
80
11
Aren't the majority of smartphones Samsung is selling the galaxy series, which is just as expensive, if not more expensive then iPhone.

So samsung shipped twice as many smartphones as apple, meaning Samsung made like double revenue as apple ?

I'm not sure where you are getting that information from. The Galaxy S4 sold extremely poorly... and by all accounts we're going to get the same from the S5. The S3 was their last high end "hit" phone.

The vast majority of Samsung's share comes from their cheapo phones.

Try Google... you'll see.
 

69Mustang

macrumors 604
Jan 7, 2014
7,895
15,043
In between a rock and a hard place
Indeed. The term 'smartphone' market is a joke based on arbitrary distinctions. There will soon be only one 'phone' market and in that market Apple's share is and always has been rising steadily and is now up to 10%.

These reports have been able to suppress this story the last few years by continually moving more and more phones into the 'smartphone' category to make said category grow faster than Apple to make Apple look bad. This includes many Android devices with no data plans. However, within the next year they will run out of dumb phones to reclassify as smartphones and Apple's true growth will become impossible to hide. I'll make some popcorn...

Not sure if serious. Why would any of these marketing and research firms want Apple to look bad? What do they gain by "suppressing the story"?
 

alexgowers

macrumors 65816
Jun 3, 2012
1,338
892
As far as I can see Apple was one of the only large market share holders, who managed to get shipments and market share up?

As a broader observation, apple makes the most profit on each phone and is a quality brand.

All the others are in decline or are cheaper phones that garner so little profit their shipping numbers over the lifetime of the product produce a negligible profit especially after R&D costs.

It's slim pickings for everyone but apple and that hurts companies more than shipped units.
 

iMember

macrumors 6502
Mar 19, 2014
280
107
Nope. Apple shipped 43.7M iPhones, Samsng was estimated to have "SHIPPED" 85M Smartphones. Still not accurate, but an apples to apples comparison.

On Apple site says SOLD!!!! not shipped, where did u get that info? from a Samsung fanboyism site? :apple:
 

bobringer

macrumors member
May 20, 2004
80
11
Bolded from your quote: That's completely wrong. A cursory google search will reveal reports by manufacturer/vendor in multiple industries.

The problem is you're looking for the wrong report. A detailed breakdown is what you're requesting. Fortunately the report exists. Unfortunately, it's most likely behind a paywall. It's just waiting for you to satisfy your curiosity with a credit card.;)

So... people report market share by segment in secret? And that negates my point?

99% of the analysis I've seen reports market share for the total market. SPECIFICALLY THE ANALYSIS AND CORRESPONDING ARTICLE I WAS RESPONDING TO.

So... if you can show me how widespread these analyses are distributed that breakdown market by segment... I'd love to see it.
 

2457282

Suspended
Dec 6, 2012
3,327
3,015
These figure go part of the way in telling the story, but not the whole way. In the mobile market as a whole, Apple continues to beat everyone because they are growing in the smart phone segment where the other vendors have a big investment in the feature phone segment that is quickly evaporating.

In the smartphone segment alone, apple is selling more than ever, but seemingly losing market share to others, especially Samsung. The slices that I would like to see that they still do not report is the segment that apple deals in exclusively -- smartphones over $USD400. My guess is that Samsung and others are gaining market share over Apple because they are selling more smartphones in the low end (sub $USD400). Apple needs to think about offering something at a lower price point and my hope is that the 5c line will allow them to finally compete in that arena.

But it should be more clear that in the segment that Apple currently competes (you know, the segment where all the profit is), Apple is still winning. Of course they cannot rest, but even this article seems to obfuscate where Apple stands (selling more and making huge profits)
 
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