Smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2014 grew by 20.3 percent and reached to 301 million units. Many home grown vendors have launched low cost smartphones which in turns affected the sales of featured phones. So, featured phones sale declined 25% in the third quarter of 2014. Chinese companies have shown strong sales numbers but Samsung managed to beat all to be at top. Apple was at second largest smartphone vendor in terms of number of sales. But Apple was at top if we consider the smartphone sales value.
But Gartner’s report does not confirm the claim of IHS iSuppli’s report. IHS iSuppli reported that Xiaomi was the third largest smartphone vendor with 19 million smartphone sales. But Garner confirms that Xiaomi only sold more than 15 million smartphone to achieve fourth spot.
Samsung has sold more than 73 million smartphone in third quarter of 2014 to become the top smartphone vendor. It managed to get 24.4 % market share. But if we compare the stats with last quarter, Samsung has no reason to be happy even if it is at top. Samsung had 32.1% market share in Q3, 2013 but in this quarter, market share was declined by 7.7%. Samsung sales declined 28.6 percent in China which was the biggest market by the company. Xiaomi snatched the market share from the company.
Apple was the second biggest vendor in this time period and managed to grab 12.7% market share by selling around 38 million smartphones. New iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus helped company in both revenue and revenue. Company also saw growth of 0.6% in market share in comparison to the same quarter of last year. Huawei managed to be at third with 15.9 million smartphone sales. It also managed to grew its market share by 0.6% to achieve 5.3% market share in Q3 2014. Xiaomi sold nearly 15.7 million smartphone to achieve 5% market share and is at fourth spot. But it is one of biggest achievers of this quarter. Fifth place is for Lenovo which sold 15 million smartphone to get 5% market share.
Chinese smartphone vendors were grew by 4.1% in combine but Xiaomi was the winner. This is the first time when Xiaomi made debut in the top 5 vendors list. In China, it saw an increase of 336% where it became the largest smartphone vendor. In India, it saw huge response. But a patent case force it to halt the sales in India till February.
Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo are very close and we can expect changes of the positions of these three smartphone vendors in the Q4 2014. Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo are very close and we can expect changes of the positions of these three smartphone vendors in the Q4 2014. Ban on Xiaomi in India can hit it and Motorola’s acquisition by Lenovo will surely help Lenovo in gaining.
Android was the best choice of consumers. Around 83% smartphone sold in Q3, 2014 was Android smartphones. It gained around 1.1% from Q3, 2013. Apple’s iOS had 12.7% market share in Q3, 2014. Apple also gained market share around 0.6%. Windows Phone lost its market share from 3.6% to 3.0%. BlackBerry has also come the the looser with 0.8% market share. It had 1.8% market share in Q3, 2013.
If we combine the feature phone sales too, you will see big changes in the ranking. Samsung is till at top, but Nokia and LG are the new entry in the top 5. Over all mobile phone sales was more than 455 million in Q3 of 2014. Samsung tops the list with 94 million smartphone sales to get 20.6% market share. If we compare it with the sales in third quarter of last year, Samsung loses around 5% of its market share. Nokia managed to get second place with 9.5% market share by selling over 43 million smartphones in this quarter. Nokia also loses its market share by 4% from previous year’s same quarter. It had 13.8% market share in Q3, 2014.
Apple does not sell feature phone but its strong smartphone sales helped it to get third spot. It has over all 8.4% market share which is 1.4% more than the market share in Q3, 2013. LG is at fourth with 4.2% market share. Huawei sold in total 16.3 million mobile phones and had 3.8% market share in Q3, 2014.
Samsung will not be happy by seeing this report. And it should seriously think and make the strategy for the next year. It has seen loss in every segment. Home grown smartphone vendors are snatching its market share. In Chine it is Xiaomi and in India it is Micromax and Xiaomi. Chinese smartphone vendors performed really well. And we can expect the same performance from these companies in the coming months.
Western European smartphone sales declined 5.2% in this quarter. This is the third consecutive decline this year.
Smartphones are already account for 66% of world’s total mobile market. And it is expected to be 90% by 2018.
Data Source: Garnter
