Global smartphone shipments grew 31% annually from 290.2 million units in fourth-quarter 2013 to a record 380.1 million in fourth-quarter 2014, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics.
"An impressive 1.3 billion smartphones were shipped worldwide in 2014 [up 29.6% from 0.99 billion in 2013], with very strong growth seen last year in emerging markets such as China, India and Africa," notes Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics.
Apple's shipments grew 18% from 51 million in Q4/2013 to 74.5 million in Q4/2014, capturing a record 19.6% market share (up from 17.6%). "Apple's new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models are proving wildly popular in China, USA and Europe," comments executive director Neil Mawston.
Apple tied with Samsung to become the world's largest smartphone vendor for the first time since Q4/2011. Samsung's 19.6% market share (74.5 million shipments) is down from 29.6% in Q4/2013 (86 million shipments). "Samsung continues to face intense competition from Apple at the higher end of the smartphone market, from Huawei in the middle tiers, and from Xiaomi and others at the entry-level," notes Mawston. "Samsung may soon have to consider taking over rivals, such as Blackberry, in order to revitalize growth this year," he adds. However, Samsung remained the number-one smartphone player globally on a full-year basis in 2014.
Lenovo merged officially with Motorola to capture 6.5% smartphone market share (level year-on-year, with shipments up from 18.8 million in Q4/2013 to 24.7 million in Q4/2014), taking third position. "Lenovo is hoping to leverage Motorola's famous brand to drive global scale this year and to offset some of Lenovo's recently weakening smartphone growth at home in China," says Strategy Analytics' director Woody Oh.
Huawei's shipments grew by 45% from 16.6 million in Q4/2013 to 24.1 million in Q4/2014, taking a 6.3% market share (up from 5.7%) in fourth place. "Huawei is expanding rapidly online in China and through retailers across Africa, enabling it to become an emerging powerhouse in developing markets." Adds Oh.
The report 'Apple Becomes World's Largest Smartphone Vendor in Q4 2014' is published by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service.
