Published in Mobiles

Huawei and Xiaomi outpace Lenovo, LG in smartphone market

by on16 December 2014



Samsung and Apple still dominate

Samsung has lost smartphone market share, ending the quarter on a low note and Xiaomi appears to be the big winner.

According to Gartner's latest smartphone market report, Samsung shipped 73.2 million units in Q3 2014, down from 80.3 million a year ago. Its market share slipped from 32.1% to 24.4%. While this is a substantial drop, Samsung still sells one in four smartphones on the planet. 

Apple steady as always, Xiaomi on fire


Apple's market share increased from 12.1% in Q3 2013 to 12.7% last quarter, with shipments of 38.1 million units. The introduction of the iPhone 6 series clearly helped Cupertino regain its footing. Huawei came in third, shipping 15.9 million phones for a market share of 5.3%, up from 4.7% in the same quarter last year. However, another Chinese smartphone maker had a truly impressive year. 

gartner-smartphone-market-2014


Xiaomi's market share went up from 1.5% in Q3 2013 to 5.2% last quarter, with the company shipping 15.7 million units. This allowed it to outpace Lenovo, with 15 million units and a 5% market share (down from 5.2% a year ago).

LG, Nokia/Microsoft and Sony are not in the top five. However, the biggest five smartphone brands accounted for 55.5% of all phones shipped last quarter – leaving 44.5% of the 300 million unit market up for grabs.

Gartner upbeat on Apple and cheap phones


Gartner expects sales of smartphones to reach 1.2 billion units next year, as sales of feature phones continue to plummet. Smartphones currently account for two thirds of the mobile phone market and sales of feature phones declined 25% last quarter. Within three years, just one of ten mobile phones is expected to be a feature phone.

This opens up more room for cheap smarphones and Gartner expects low-cost LTE devices will present "key opportunities" for some brands moving forward. Apple is also expected to do well.

“Over the holidays we expect record sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but we should not underestimate the Chinese vendors and local brands,” said Annette Zimmermann, research director at Gartner. “Chinese players will continue to look at expanding in overseas emerging markets."

In other words, big G expects more big iPhones and sub-$100 Androids next year.

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