Those that say that the Mobile Tech world is one of the most steadily advancing industries in the world would be pleased today. TNV is reporting that the industry hit a huge marker in history last year after one billion smartphones were shipped for the first time, as stated in a new report from IDC. Along with that, the research firm also says that Samsung is the “clear leader” in terms of market share, despite the slight decline we saw in Q1 of this past year.
Globally, the volume of smartphone shipments reached a whopping 1.004 billion (494.4 million of those in Q4 alone – amounting in 55.1% of all shipments). For those of you that don’t know, that means the smartphone has actually out-shipped the feature phone (flip phones, slide-outs and the like) for the first time in history. For comparison, they accounted for 41.5% of shipments last year.
As stated before, Samsung led the pack, its share going up 1% to 31.3% over the course of the year. While Samsung does not report its shipment numbers, IDC believes they shipped approximately 313.8 million devices in the past year. In comparison, Apple officially shipped 153.4 million units (160.4 million less than Samsung if you’re wondering), which brought them in second to Samsung at 15.3% market share. It’s interesting to note that while Apple sold 12.3% more devices than they did in 2012, their market share actually declined by 3.4 percent this past year.
IDC notes that there is worry that Samsung is conceding market share, but as we mentioned yesterday, Samsung continues on their route to domination. Apple say “sustained demand” after the release of their two new phones, the 5S and 5C but – despite this – actually posted the least amount of growth.
Below Samsung and Apple come Huawei, LG and Lenovo who have taken third, fourth and fifth place respectively in the top five of 2013.
What do you all think about this? Do you believe Samsung is going to continue unhindered? What about Apple? Take a look at the graphs below, and let us know your opinion in the comments!