CUPERTINO (dpa-AFX) - Blockbuster sales of big-screen iPhones during the holiday quarter has helped tech giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) to tie with Samsung to become the world's largest smartphone vendor.
Both Apple and Samsung sold 74.5 million smartphones during the December quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Apple's sales increased from 51.0 million units sold last year, while Samsung sales plunged from 86.0 million units. Apple has become the world's largest smartphone vendor for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2011, according to Strategy Analytics.
Samsung and Apple each took about 20 percent of the market share, with Apple gaining 2 percent while Samsung shed 10 percent, hurt largely by low-cost variants of Android devices from Chinese and Indian manufacturers.
On Tuesday, Apple reported a record profit for its first quarter that jumped 38 percent to $18 billion, after the tech giant's revenues were boosted by tremendous demand for its bigger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus during the holiday quarter. In the December quarter, Apple performed very strongly in China, the world's largest smartphone market, and was first in the country's market share, topping Xiaomi.
Global smartphone shipments in the quarter surged 31 percent to 380.1 million smartphones, and shipped about 1.3 billion units worldwide in 2014.
Whereas at the same time, Samsung has been losing its smartphone market share to Apple in the premium segment and in the low-cost segment to cheaper Android devices from Chinese company Xiaomi and Indian company Micromax.
Yesterday, the South Korean conglomerate reported a 27 percent drop in profit, hurt largely by plunging operating margins at smartphone segment.
Lenovo came in at the third position with smartphone shipments of 24.7 million and a market share of 6.5 percent, helped by Motorola acquisition. Huawei was at fourth position with 6.3 percent share.
AAPL is currently trading at $117.08, up $1.77 or 1.53%, on the Nasdaq.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX