As pretty much everyone knows at this point, Samsung and Apple are the two biggest smartphone manufacturers in the world. These two companies have been trading the number one market share place for quite some time now, and it seems like Samsung managed to get back on top in the third quarter this year. Samsung’s most notable releases this year are the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones, and their Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus phablet. Apple has, on the other hand, recently released their iPhone 6S and 6S Plus flagships.
That being said, let’s take a look at some market share statistics, shall we. First and foremost, it is worth noting that this info comes from DRAMeXchange, a market tracker. According to the report, Samsung’s global market share fell from 26.7% to 24.6% at the end of last month, but the company managed to retain the no1 spot despite that. Apple’s market share, on the other hand, also dropped, from 15.4% to 13.7%. Additional sources say that Samsung’s annual shipments will probably decrease as well, by approximately 1% compared to last year, which means that the company will ship roughly 333.5 million units. As far as the smartphone market in general is concerned, it is expected to grow by 9.3% year-on-year compared to last year, and by approximately 7.7% in 2016 compared to this year.
Samsung will almost certainly retain its number one spot in the fourth quarter as well, but we might see some significant market share percentage changes though. The holiday season is coming up and we all know what that means as far as shipments go, so it will surely going to be interesting to see not only how will these two companies do in the next couple of months, but smartphone manufacturers in general. Huawei has been doing really well this year and is currently third-placed smartphone OEM in the world. Huawei still can’t compete with the likes of Apple or Samsung, not by a long shot, but it will be interesting to see if they can retain that position. Neither Samsung nor Apple are expected to announce any new flagship-material devices in the next couple of months, unless something unexpected happens. Either way, stay tuned.