Last year, for the first time in history, Apple overtook Samsung to sell the most smartphones in a year. The South Korean tech giant had held the number one position since 2011, when it replaced Finland's Nokia in the top spot. In the preliminary analysis the company IDC informed about it. The other places were taken by Chinese companies Xiaomi, Oppo and Transsion. But total smartphone sales fell 3.2 percent last year to 1.17 billion units, the lowest full-year figure in a decade.
Apple increased shipments of its iPhones by 3.7 percent to 234.6 million units last year, according to the survey. Its global market share rose 1.3 percentage points to 20.1 percent. Samsung's shipments, on the other hand, fell 13.6 percent to 226.6 million devices and its market share fell to 19.4 percent from 21.7 percent a year earlier.
IDC said the last time Samsung was not at the top of the annual table was 13 years ago in 2010. Back then, Apple didn't even rank in the top five. Instead, Nokia topped the list, followed by Samsung, LG Electronics, ZTE and Research in Motion (maker of BlackBerry devices).
Last year, the other three positions belonged to Chinese companies. Xiaomi came third and Oppo fourth, but both saw sales fall. In contrast, Transsion, which is mainly active in Africa and came fifth, saw its sales rise by almost 31 per cent and its market share increase by 2.1 percentage points to 8.1 per cent.
IDC also said that Apple's sales grew mainly in the pre-Christmas fourth quarter, which is traditionally the most important period for new model sales, by 11.6 percent. Samsung's sales, on the other hand, fell by about 11 percent during that time. However, the South Korean company is not only threatened by Apple, but also by competition from other Android mobile manufacturers such as Huawei, OnePlus, Honor and Google. Moreover, the fact that Huawei is growing primarily in the Chinese market may be the reason why Apple is not doing so well there.
But in terms of the number of all smartphones sold, last year was weak across the decade. Only 1.17 billion units were sold, the lowest in a decade. This was due to last year's weak performance of the overall market, which was largely due to macroeconomic issues and increased inventory at the beginning of the year. However, things started to improve in the second half of the year and sales picked up. In the fourth quarter, shipments were up 8.5 percent year-on-year, more than expected.
