Samsung Galaxy S6 and Apple IPhone (Photo : s6galaxy.net)
A recent report released by market research firm Gartner revealed that tech giant Apple has snatched the smartphone-king crown from its closest rival Samsung, a spot held by the South Korean company for four years. The report was based on the fourth quarter sales statistics of the two smartphone manufacturers.
The report from Gartner showed that during the fourth quarter of 2014 more than 367 million smartphone devices were sold and Apple managed to roll-out more than 74.8 million units which represent around 20 percent of the whole market share. The South Korean company on the other hand is closely behind with 73 million units sold and represents 19.9 percent market share.
Gartner principal research analyst Anshul Gupta said that, "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."
Samsung's dominance in the smartphone market stems from the fact that the company sells budget-friendly devices as compared to Apple's premium priced iPhone line. However, due to the emergence of several Chinese smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi and Huawei, Samsung's products have finally found its true rival in terms of lower-priced smartphone market, according to USA Today.
On the other hand, Samsung still fares as the top smartphone manufacturer in 2014. Samsung managed to sell 307.6 million units and holds 24.7 percent market share. For the whole year of 2014, Apple managed to sell 191.4 million devices and has a market of 15.4 percent, according to TechCrunch.
In terms of operating system, Google's Android platform is still on top. Of all the smartphones sold in 2014, 80.7 percent of them were running on Android and only 15.4 of them are running on Apple's iOS operating system.
