Gartner puts out a report on the state of the smartphone market each quarter, as many market analyst firms do, and this quarter, Apple is at the top of the charts in terms of sheer market share, almost tied up with second place holder Samsung. This quarter is the closest the two have ever been in terms of market share, according to Gartner, with a mere 0.1% of the market separating them this time. Huawei rounded out the top three contenders with 9.5% of the global market, while Oppo made a surprise slam dunk, netting fourth place with 6.2% of the world market. Other ventures within BBK Communication Equipment, Oppo’s parent company, managed to score 5.6% of the market, leaving 43.1% for everybody else. These other ventures include the likes of OnePlus and Vivo.
With the fourth quarter results in, the overall year’s numbers can finally be crunched, and Samsung comes out the clear winner here. They managed to nab 20.5% market share for the year against Apple’s 14.4%. They accomplished this by beating Apple in sheer numbers to the tune of just a bit over 90 million units. Huawei nabbed third place overall for the year, Oppo got fourth, just like in the quarterly charts, and the other BBK Communication Equipment brands put together nabbed fifth place, also mirroring the overall charts for the year. Altogether, they left 45.6% for other players, down from 49.1% for last year. Samsung managed to best Apple in the fourth quarter of last year too, with Samsung leading Apple by a wide margin. Looking a year back for the Chinese vendors on the list, Huawei maintained their third place hold, but Oppo and BBK Communication Equipment both scored below 4% for the fourth quarter of 2015. The rising Chinese stars don’t seem to show any signs of overtaking the top three for now, but as with every year, it’s really anybody’s game.
The operating system charts for the quarter tell a story that largely corroborates the brand charts. For the fourth quarter, Android nabbed the top spot with 81.7% market share, while iOS trailed behind at 17.9%. Windows Phone posted a dismal 0.3%, while BlackBerry OS fell off the charts entirely, moving just about 207,900 units and getting 0.0% of the market. This figure was barely bested by the menagerie of other assorted players in the smartphone market space like Tizen and Sailfish OS.
