Smartphone sales surpasses one billion units in 2014: Gartner

Smartphone sales represented two-thirds of global phone market in 2014, Samsung lost top position to Apple in global smartphone market in Q4 of 2014

Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users had a record fourth quarter of 2014 with an increase of 29.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013 to reach 367.5 million units, according to Gartner, Inc. Samsung lost the No. 1 spot to Apple in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2014 (see Table 1). Samsung had been in the top spot since 2011. 

In 2014, sales of smartphones to end users totaled 1.2 billion units, up 28.4 percent from 2013 (see Table 2) and represented two-thirds of global mobile phone sales. 

"Samsung's performance in the smartphone market deteriorated further in the fourth quarter of 2014, when it lost nearly 10 percentage points in market share," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Samsung continues to struggle to control its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013. This downward trend shows that Samsung's share of profitable premium smartphone users has come under significant pressure." 

"With Apple dominating the premium phone market and the Chinese vendors increasingly offering quality hardware at lower prices, it is through a solid ecosystem of apps, content and services unique to Samsung devices that Samsung can secure more loyalty and longer-term differentiation at the high end of the market," said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. 

Table 1: Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 4Q14 (Thousands of Units)Company 4Q14 4Q14 4Q13 4Q13Units Market Share (%) Units Market Share (%)Apple 74,832 20.4 50,224 17.8Samsung 73,032 19.9 83,317 29.5Lenovo* 24,300 6.6 16,465 5.8Huawei 21,038 5.7 16,057 5.7Xiaomi 18,582 5.1 5,598 2Others 155,701.60 42.4 111,204.30 39.3Total 367,484.50 100 282,866.20 100Source: Gartner (March 2015)
Table 2: Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2014 (Thousands of Units)Company 2014 2014 2013 2013Units Market Share (%) Units Market Share (%)Samsung 307,597 24.7 299,795 30.9Apple 191,426 15.4 150,786 15.5Lenovo* 81,416 6.5 57,424 5.9Huawei 68,081 5.5 46,609 4.8LG Electronics 57,661 4.6 46,432 4.8Others 538,710.00 43.3 368,675.00 38Total 1,244,890.00 100 969,721.00 100Source: Gartner (March 2015)

Chinese vendors, such as Huawei and Xiaomi, are continuing to improve their sales in China and other overseas markets, increasing their share in the mid to low-end smartphone market. "Chinese vendors are no longer followers," said Ms. Cozza. "They are producing higher quality devices with appealing new hardware features that can rival the more established players in the mobile phone market. Brand building and marketing will be key activities in deciding which Chinese vendors can secure a foothold in mature markets." 

The availability of smartphones at lower prices accelerated the migration of feature phone users to smartphones pushing the smartphone operating system (OS) market to double-digit growth in most emerging countries, including India, Russia and Mexico. This trend continued to benefit Android, which saw its market share grow 2.2 percentage points in 2014, and 32 percent year on year (see Table 3). Chinese and other smaller players drove Android's performance in 2014, while more established players at the higher end of the market continued to struggle to increase stickiness to their brands and ecosystems. Windows Phone's performance was flat but it recorded strong results in some markets in Europe, and in the business segment. 

Table 3: Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2014 (Thousands of Units)Operating System 2014 2014 2013 2013Units Market Share (%) Units Market Share (%)Android 1,004,675 80.7 761,288 78.5iOS 191,426 15.4 150,786 15.5Windows 35,133 2.8 30,714 3.2BlackBerry 7,911 0.6 18,606 1.9Other OS 5,745 0.5 8,327 0.9Total 1,244,890.00 100 969,721.00 100Source: Gartner (March 2015)

Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totaled nearly 1.9 billion units in 2014, a 3.9 percent increase from the same period in 2013 (see Table 4). All regions recorded growth in 2014, except Japan and Western Europe, which recorded declines of 2.8 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively. 

Table 4: Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2014 (Thousands of Units)Company 2014 2014 2013 2013Units Market Share (%) Units Market Share (%)Samsung 392,546 20.9 444,472 24.6Apple 191,426 10.2 150,786 8.3Microsoft 185,660 9.9  250,835 13.9Lenovo* 84,029 4.5 66,463 3.7LG Electronics 76,096 4 69,094 3.8Huawei 70,499.00 3.8 53,296.00 2.9TCL Communication 64,026.00 3.4 49,538.00 2.7Xiaomi 56,529.00 3 13,423.00 0.7ZTE 53,910.00 2.9 59,903.00 3.3Sony 37,791.00 2 37,596.00 2.1Micromax 37,094.00 2 25,431.00 1.4Others 629,360.00 33.5 587,764.00 32.5Total 1,878,968.00 100 1,808,600.00 100Source: Gartner (March 2015)