Samsung Regains Title Of World’s Biggest Smartphone Maker

Mike Moore,
Samsung Galaxy S6

Samsung usurps Apple once again but results aren’t all rosy for the new market leader

The battle for global supremacy in the smartphone market has taken another turn as new statistics show Samsung once again taking global top spot from Apple.

Figures from analyst firm Strategy Analytics have revealed that the Galaxy S6 maker has overtaken its old rival to recapture first position as the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume.

In a bumper quarter for smartphone sales, which saw global shipments grew 21 percent year on year to reach 345 million units, Samsung shipped 83.2 million smartphones worldwide to secure 24.1 percent market share.

This was ahead of Apple, which shipped 61.2 million devices for a 17.7 percent market share, helped by the continuing popularity of its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models in China as consumers upgrade to larger-screen phablets for enhanced data experiences. Lenovo-Motorola was in third place with 5.4 percent, with Huawei in fourth with 5 percent.

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This strong performance was also reflected in Samsung’s Q1 2015 financial results, which were revealed today, and showed better than expected returns thanks to sales of its low and mid-tier devices.

However despite toppling Apple, Samsung’s first quarter results revealed a 29 percent fall in profits.

Operating profits came in at 5.90 trillion won (£35.8bn),down from 8.49 trillion won (£51.7bn) in the first quarter of 2014, while revenue fell from 53.68 trillion won (£32.6bn) to 47.12 trillion won (£28.7bn).

However these figures are likely to improve over the next quarter as Samsung begins to enjoy the benefits of Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge sales, which are projected to be greater than any of its past devices.

The company revealed earlier this month that it had been caught off guard by the sheer demand for the new devices, which went on sale in the UK on April 10, revealing that it had already secured 20 million pre-orders of both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge in just a few weeks following the opening of pre-orders, describing the response to its latest devices as “really huge”.

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