For years, Samsung and Apple have been in a never-ending battle of smartphone dominance. Samsung has been the leader when it comes to worldwide smartphone sales since 2011, which put them ahead in the race. It seems this has changed, according to a recent press release by Gartner Inc.
Gartner has revealed that Samsung has lost the number one spot in global smartphone sales in quarter four of 2014. Samsung lost nearly 10 percentage points in market share in 2014, which could possibly be due to its disappointing release of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Apple making drastic changes and improvements with its release of the iPhone 6.
Anshul Gupta of Gartner states:
Samsung continues to struggle to control its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013. This downward trend shows that Samsung’s share of profitable premium smartphone users has come under significant pressure.
With Samsung struggling, Apple recorded its best quarter ever in quarter four of 2014. During this quarter, Apple sold 74.8 million units which pushed them just past Samsung to number one. Apple’s release of the iPhone 6 Plus is also converting more Samsung users who were put off by past iPhone’s small phone displays. Smart move Apple!
To get a better grasp of the current situation check out the table below:
Although it appears that Apple just barely took the majority of market share, many expect it to go up if Samsung does not make a big splash with the Samsung Galaxy S6. It is worth noting that while Apple has taken the market share when it comes to smartphones, when it comes to operating systems Android still dominates the market. You can see how apparent this is in the table below:
Samsung has officially unveiled the Samsung Galaxy S6, and we can see that they’ve completely redesigned their flagship smartphone. These changes appear to have given Samsung hope, so it will be interesting to see if they can chomp back some lost market share upon its release.
With that said, do you think Samsung will be able to make up lost ground when the S6 is released? Or will Apple extend their lead? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.