We learned this week that Apple shipped 74.8 million iPhones globally during the recent holiday quarter, which is just slightly up from the 74.4 million shipped during the same quarter the year prior and just under the 75 million that analysts expected.
Today Strategy Analytics has released new data showing how Apple’s last two years of shipments compare to competitors like Samsung and Huawei. The data also breaks down how Apple’s global smartphone marketshare stacks up to those same competitors.
As we already knew, Apple shipped 231.5 million iPhones globally in 2015 compared to 192.7 million globally the year prior, which maintains the company’s second place rank between Samsung and Huawei. Global iPhone shipments trailed Samsung’s 317.2 million smartphones shipped in 2014, and 319.7 million shipped last year.
Also of note, in total Strategy Analytics says the total number of smartphones shipped globally in 2015 hit 1.4 billion units, up from 1.2 billion the year prior, marking a 12% increase.
And in terms of global marketshare by vendor, Apple climbed 1.1% in 2015, moving from 15% to 16.1%. Samsung, which remained in the top spot, dropped 2.5% from 24.7% to 22.2% between 2014 and 2015. Samsung did, however, regain marketshare at Apple’s expensive during the holiday quarter as you can see below:
Counterpoint Research, another firm tracking smartphone data, notes that 3 in 5 smartphones shipped in 2015 were LTE capable, adding that 900 million LTE smartphones were shipped globally last year. The firm similarly reports the same 1.4 billion smartphones shipped globally last year.
One last interesting detail: Counterpoint says that 850 smartphone brands were competing in 2015, but the top 20 brands maintained 85% of total smartphone shipments.
The major takeaway the new Strategy Analytics data is that Apple’s perhaps temporary peak iPhone quarter indeed suggests the company will need to look to emerging markets for new opportunity, and on the Android side Huawei has gained steam while Samsung remains on top for now.
