Samsung widens lead in worldwide smartphone marketshare, smaller OEMs rising
According to a fresh report from market research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipped a record 86 million smartphones worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2013, boosting its stake of the worldwide market as Apple's share fell over the same period.
Source: Strategy Analytics
Despite announcing a record 51 million iPhone sales, Apple's share of the worldwide smartphone market fell to 17.6 percent in the three months ending in December, a 4.4 point dip from the year ago quarter. By comparison, Samsung upped its piece of the pie to 29.6 percent over the same period, up 0.6 percent year over year.
The Strategy Analytics report puts Samsung's fourth quarter smartphone shipments at 86 million units, up from 63 million in 2012. Apple also showed growth, moving from 47.8 million iPhone sales to 51 million.
For the year, Samsung reportedly shipped some 319.8 million smartphones, a huge increase from last year's 213 million. Apple's year-end sales reached 153.4 million units, up from 135.8 million in 2012. Samsung accounted for 32.3 percent of all smartphone shipments last year, while Apple came in at No. 2 with 15.5 percent.
"Despite tough competition from a long tail of Chinese and American brands, Samsung continued to deliver numerous hit models, such as the Galaxy S4 and Note 3," said Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston. "Apple grew a sluggish 13 percent annually and shipped 153.4 million smartphones worldwide for 15 percent marketshare in 2013, dipping from the 19 percent level recorded in 2012. Apple remains strong in the high-end smartphone segment, but a lack of presence in the low-end category is costing it lost volumes in fast-growing emerging markets such as India."
The bigger story may be upstarts like Huawei, LG and Lenovo, each of which grew their share of smartphone shipments substantially in quarter four. With cheaper price points and competitive features, the Asian manufacturers managed to take a combined 14 percent marketshare in the three-month period.
Huawei came in third behind Apple with 16.6 million units shipped for the fourth quarter of 2013, up from 10.9 million in 2012. LG and Lenovo also upped their shipment numbers and came out with 13.2 million units and 13.6 million units, respectively. For the 2013 calendar year, Huawei, LG and Lenovo shipped a respective 50.4 million, 47.6 million and 45.5 million smartphones.
"Samsung and Apple together accounted for almost half of all smartphones shipped worldwide in 2013," said Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics Linda Sui. "Large marketing budgets, extensive distribution channels and attractive product portfolios have enabled Samsung and Apple to maintain their grip on the smartphone industry. However, there is clearly now more competition coming from the second-tier smartphone brands."
Overall, worldwide smartphone shipments came in at 990 million units, a huge increase from 2012, which saw 700.1 million handsets shipped.
Source: Strategy Analytics
Despite announcing a record 51 million iPhone sales, Apple's share of the worldwide smartphone market fell to 17.6 percent in the three months ending in December, a 4.4 point dip from the year ago quarter. By comparison, Samsung upped its piece of the pie to 29.6 percent over the same period, up 0.6 percent year over year.
The Strategy Analytics report puts Samsung's fourth quarter smartphone shipments at 86 million units, up from 63 million in 2012. Apple also showed growth, moving from 47.8 million iPhone sales to 51 million.
For the year, Samsung reportedly shipped some 319.8 million smartphones, a huge increase from last year's 213 million. Apple's year-end sales reached 153.4 million units, up from 135.8 million in 2012. Samsung accounted for 32.3 percent of all smartphone shipments last year, while Apple came in at No. 2 with 15.5 percent.
"Despite tough competition from a long tail of Chinese and American brands, Samsung continued to deliver numerous hit models, such as the Galaxy S4 and Note 3," said Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston. "Apple grew a sluggish 13 percent annually and shipped 153.4 million smartphones worldwide for 15 percent marketshare in 2013, dipping from the 19 percent level recorded in 2012. Apple remains strong in the high-end smartphone segment, but a lack of presence in the low-end category is costing it lost volumes in fast-growing emerging markets such as India."
The bigger story may be upstarts like Huawei, LG and Lenovo, each of which grew their share of smartphone shipments substantially in quarter four. With cheaper price points and competitive features, the Asian manufacturers managed to take a combined 14 percent marketshare in the three-month period.
Huawei came in third behind Apple with 16.6 million units shipped for the fourth quarter of 2013, up from 10.9 million in 2012. LG and Lenovo also upped their shipment numbers and came out with 13.2 million units and 13.6 million units, respectively. For the 2013 calendar year, Huawei, LG and Lenovo shipped a respective 50.4 million, 47.6 million and 45.5 million smartphones.
"Samsung and Apple together accounted for almost half of all smartphones shipped worldwide in 2013," said Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics Linda Sui. "Large marketing budgets, extensive distribution channels and attractive product portfolios have enabled Samsung and Apple to maintain their grip on the smartphone industry. However, there is clearly now more competition coming from the second-tier smartphone brands."
Overall, worldwide smartphone shipments came in at 990 million units, a huge increase from 2012, which saw 700.1 million handsets shipped.
Comments
Dooooomed
Wow! 86 million smartphones buried in the desert during 2013 (or Strategy Analytics are just paid shills)...
Where are all these Samesung smartphones? I literally have never seen anybody use a Samscum phone...
Wow! 86 million smartphones buried in the desert during 2013 (or Strategy Analytics are just paid shills)...
Where are all these Samesung smartphones? I literally have never seen anybody use a Samscum phone...
My sister has an S4. What's more, she's doubly doomed - she's on Sprint.
What this fails to say is that only 25% of those 86 million of those smartphones are in the iphone class. We are talking S2, S3 and S4 only make 25% of those sales, the rest are those cheap smartphones like the galaxy aces of the world. So if we are comparing oranges to oranges apple owns the high end with samsung getting the rest while everyone else do not even register. This is like the report that nokia is killing the iphone in spain, which fails to specify what nokia is actually selling are the 508's of the world, not the 1020's of the world which is in the iphone category. Apple does not even have a phone in those categories, way to win a race your competitor is not even participating in. Apple does not even have a phone in the sub $400 categories while a lot of those guys are fighting it in the sub $200 and $100 categories.
Get it through your thick skulls, Apple fans, Wall Street has decided that market share is THE most important metric. And by that metric Apple is doomed. End of story, period. Why is that so hard to understand and accept? Apple had their best quarter ever in terms of sales, they make money hand over fist, their products are top shelf, their customer service is the best, but they are losing market share so that makes them poison to investors these days. Google spent $3.2 billion for a thermostat and they are applauded as the future of tech. It’s long past the time for Apple fans to wise up and drink the hemlock. Realize the company you love is dirt between the toes of Wall Street.
Because they should actually be doing their jobs, is all.
The category to watch is 'other'
Samsung and Apple have more or less divvied up the existing market. Mostly the rich areas of the world. All the rich peeps have their phones now and growth is slowing considerably.
Samsung also took the time to deliver smartphones to the low end of the market and pretty much dominated that with little competition.
That is the market that is expanding and has the future growth (despite low margins).
Both Apple and Samsung are likely to get a beating in market share numbers this year. Apple chose not to release a product that will compete in the segment, and Samsung for the first time is going to counter serious competition. China is by far the biggest market with the most growth and the homefield teams of Huawei and Lenova are likely to just keep cleaning house.
Because they should actually be doing their jobs, is all.
Sadly, they are.
Late yesterday Samsung reported their profits for Q4 and confirmed that they were down 18.2%. A Samsung official told the Korean Herald that "This is caused by a base effect of the high growth of smartphones in the third quarter and inventory adjustment at the end of last year."
Shipped vs sold. Thank you.
That logic only goes so far. If Samsung consistently shipped more than it sold, its financials would suffer. Samsung's not a money-laundering operation; they have to report to their investors.
Samsung and especially the others are simply willing to accept lower profit margins than Apple, and they're willing to compete in more market segments than Apple. The market for cheaper phones is growing far faster than the market for expensive phones, and Apple's not competing in it (and for the FSM's sake don't mention contracts -- practically everybody in the US has a smartphone by now, and that's not how they're marketed in the places that are starting to buy phones now).
ps. Lenovo makes phones? Wow. Didn't know that. But it's a further sign of what I'm saying: Apple's just not competing (or not competing very hard) for the kind of consumers that Lenovo sold all those phones to last year. I think Apple will be fine without them, but it's time to give up on any pretense of Apple losing market share through some kind of trickery by its competitors (other than intellectual property, natch).
Samsung’s not a money-laundering operation…
Well…
If Samsung shipped 86 million smartphones in Q4 2013 as Strategy Analytics reported, why was the following stated for Samsung's earnings decline?
Late yesterday Samsung reported their profits for Q4 and confirmed that they were down 18.2%. A Samsung official told the Korean Herald that "This is caused by a base effect of the high growth of smartphones in the third quarter and inventory adjustment at the end of last year."
Because profits are not purely a function of the volume of sales?
Samsung may be:
1. Selling a higher proportion of lower-margin phones.
2. Spending more on capital expenses to build new facilities to make phones and parts.
3. Spending more on the average to market its phones.
4. Spending more on a per-phone basis to reach new markets and customers.
5. Paying its executives more on a per-phone basis.
6. ... (lots of possibilities)
Apple has the same problem. Apple's margins have also been falling (albeit not nearly as fast) because it costs more money to reach more customers. Think of it this way: customer #1 would probably pay Apple $1 million of the privilege of having an iPhone. Customer #2 a little less. And so on. By the time you get to customer #51m, the cost of making that customer aware of the product, working out an agreement with some carrier that that customer can afford, persuading that customer that the iPhone is the right phone for them, etc., gets higher and higher. It's amazing that Apple is as profitable as it is when it has as many customers as it has (heck, it's pretty much the only mass-market luxury goods company). Samsung has more customers than Apple, and it sells less attractive products to begin with -- and Samsung's leaders seem to have decided that market share is their goal, even if it costs profits. Apple's product and pricing strategy suggests the opposite.
Again, garbage headline from AI staff. And why is this Samsung crap always on the front page of AI? There are two Samsung stories on the front page of AI right now.
I just don't care about Samsung, dear AI Staff. If I wanted Samsung news, I'd go to a Android/Samsung site.
Well Apple are still selling more iPhone per year. It's just the market grow a lot faster with cheap Android Phone replacing every Feature phone on earth.
This year we already have trends seeing more new users and old users jumping back to iPhone camp. And not to mention the deals with China Mobile. And with many still waiting for a bigger iPhone to go back to Apple, Apple should have no problem reaching the 200M iPhone unit per year.