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Apple and Samsung Tied as World's Largest Smartphone Makers in Q4 2014 [Updated]

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The latest numbers from Strategy Analytics reveal that Apple tied Samsung during Q4 2014 to become the world's largest smartphone maker based on global shipments. According to the report, both Apple and Samsung shipped 74.5 million smartphones during the three-month period of October through December.

Apple's number is an official figure from its financial results, while Samsung's number is an estimate since the company stopped reporting smartphone shipments a few years ago. The research firm adds that Apple and Samsung were last tied in smartphone market share in Q4 2011.

Apple-Samsung.png
Apple experienced a record-breaking first quarter of the fiscal year because of strong demand for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The larger screen sizes of the two new smartphones has been a major selling point for many consumers, attracting more new customers and Android converts than ever before. Meanwhile, Samsung reported a 27% quarterly decline in earnings earlier today amid tough competition from both Apple and up-and-coming Chinese rivals such as Xiaomi and Huawei.

Strategy Analytics claims that global smartphone shipments grew 31% annually to eclipse a record 380 million units in the fourth quarter. An estimated 1.3 billion smartphones were shipped worldwide in 2014, with strong growth in emerging markets such as China, India and Africa. Apple has experienced a lot of momentum in China, noting that its online sales in the region for 2014 were more than the previous five years combined.

Apple-Samsung-Mobile-Vendors-Q4-14.png
Apple also surpassed Microsoft to become the world's second largest mobile phone vendor on the strength of the United States and China. Apple's 74.5 million smartphone shipments placed ahead of Microsoft's 50.2 million units shipped, but were behind Samsung's market leading 95 million units shipped. Apple and Samsung have global mobile phone market shares of 14.5% and 18.4% respectively.

Update 7:41 AM PT: IDC is now reporting similar numbers for Q4 2014, although the firm gives Samsung a slight edge with 75.1 million units shipped.

Article Link: Apple and Samsung Tied as World's Largest Smartphone Makers in Q4 2014 [Updated]
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/01/28/apple-samsung-strategy-analytics-q4-14/
The only question is... on what date will Apple become the first trillion dollar company.
 
When it comes to smartphone sales take anything that mentions Samsung with a grain of salt.

Samsung doesn't report sales numbers, therefore everyone is guessing.
 
317.2 versus 192.7 for 2014.

Yeah, looks like Samsung is really on their way out to me...

Let's start the doom and gloom. :cool:
 
No surprise. My wife and I both upgraded to the iPhone 6 a couple months ago and Apple absolutely knocked it out of the park with these. The iPhone 6 is proof that the post-Jobs Apple can make great products.

Anecdotally, I've never seen an iPhone release (except maybe the first one) that had so much buzz. I've been asked about it by so many people and I'm seeing a lot of Android switchers.
 
What rubbish is this? Pretty sure that Apple's shipment numbers are higher. 74,5 millions iPhones are actual units sold, not units shipped to stores et al. Way to mix up numbers!
 
Eight years ago, Apple wanted to take 1% of the smartphone market with the iPhone.

It's now competing for 2nd place in the entire mobile phone market. And in the smartphone market, it's tied with the phone vendor that makes models for every segment of the market, with just a handful of models that are/were mostly top of the line when they originally came out.

Who thought a decade ago that Apple would be such a game changer in the mobile phone industry? Makes me think that Motorola ROKR (this came out in 2005) was just a clever ruse to let everyone get their guards down.
 
Apple has had a few instances of low-hanging fruit with the iPhone in increasing marketshare. I don't mean low-hanging in terms of easy to get, but meaning that if they could expand in these ways, they would necessarily increase marketshare.

The first was the iPhone 3G, which was the first iPhone to adopt traditional network subsidies. There was a huge installed base of customers who would purchase a new phone every 2 years already at the on-contract price. The iPhone 3G was the first iPhone to target those customers. The iPhone 3G also shipped with iOS 2, which was the first time the App Store became available.

The second low hanging fruit was expanding to Verizon in the US and over time more and more international carriers.

The third low hanging fruit was actualized in the iPhone 6/6 Plus: going after the large-screen market, which had become increasingly popular. I think going after this low-hanging fruit is what explains the change in the numbers versus Samsung's decline.

Of course, most of the genius of the iPhone was present in its very first iteration. All these other ways to expand are less innovative than they are a removal of previous limitations, or maybe implementations that for some reason weren't possible for Apple at an earlier date.
 
spectrumfox said:
317.2 versus 192.7 for 2014.

Yeah, looks like Samsung is really on their way out to me...

Let's start the doom and gloom. :cool:
Click to expand...

That's unit sales.

Now check Samsung's financials.

Samsung sold more phones in 2014 than they did in 2013. Good, right?

But their profit actually went down during that time despite the increase in sales. Oops...

Oh Samsung won't go bankrupt in my lifetime... but someone at Samsung HQ will soon be looking for a new job.
 
One on its way up, one on its way down. The lines gotta cross somewhere.

They still make great refrigerators, and hopefully they are now in the watch business. Actually I'm sure they are. For now.

----------
einsteinbqat said:
What rubbish is this? Pretty sure that Apple's shipment numbers are higher. 74,5 millions iPhones are actual units sold, not units shipped to stores et al. Way to mix up numbers!
Click to expand...

Actually it is commonly regarded that sold and shipped are the same thing when talking about Apple.

It is the other companies that play with the numbers by talking about units shipped
 
spectrumfox said:
317.2 versus 192.7 for 2014.

Yeah, looks like Samsung is really on their way out to me...

Let's start the doom and gloom. :cool:
Click to expand...

With a massive profit decline. What this shows is that Samsung is selling lots of low end junk phones and less high end devices. Apple is selling all high end high margin devices.

It's easy to give away junk phones at cost. The difficult part is getting people to pay a premium for your product meaning they find value in it. It looks like Samsung is no longer capable of that and you're incapable of understanding profit vs. buying market share.
 
einsteinbqat said:
What rubbish is this? Pretty sure that Apple's shipment numbers are higher. 74,5 millions iPhones are actual units sold, not units shipped to stores et al. Way to mix up numbers!
Click to expand...

Well technically, they are probably not wrong. Apple probably sold every iPhones it made (at least within most margin of error). It would've been more fair to compare units sold, but companies other than Apple rarely reports such figure.
 
spectrumfox said:
317.2 versus 192.7 for 2014.

Yeah, looks like Samsung is really on their way out to me...

Let's start the doom and gloom. :cool:
Click to expand...

They brought this down on themselves really,kept banging on about how their phones were soo much more superior because they had a bigger screen.Iphone 6 comes out and now iphones are literally flying off shelves
 
This is really affecting the stocks quite a bit today. Apple is up 5.6% while Google has been on a steady decline and today after Samsung announced their profit decline Google went down an extra 1% today. I would be interested to see what Samsung's stock would've done if it was kept on US markets
 
MacRumors said:
The larger screen sizes of the two new smartphones has been a major selling point for many consumers ...
Click to expand...

Apple Pay and TouchID were much bigger selling points for me.
And the rounded corners. Got sick of chamfered edges.
(But the chamfering is necessary for iPad because of the new narrower bezels.)
 
It takes about 4 years for the worlds phone producers to produce one phone for every man, woman and child on the planet.


Waste much??

i bought the 3G, 4, 5, 6 Plus my wife bought the 3GS, 4S, 5S
iPad 1, iPad 2, iPad Mini
we also have 4 MacBook Pros
Apple TV 1 and Apple TV2
 
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