Canalys is out with a new report that confirms what we largely already know — the intense battle among leading smartphone vendors is driving smartphone sales to record levels globally.
With year-on-year growth of 23% over Q3 2013, the smartphone shipment total exceeded 300 million units in Q3 of 2014.
“The global market is becoming more competitive, with vendors beyond Samsung and Apple enjoying growing success,” says Canalys VP and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones.
“A year ago, in Q3 2013, Samsung and Apple together accounted for 48% of worldwide smart phone shipments,” Jones adds. “While still impressive, in Q3 2014 this had slipped to 38%. This trend is likely to continue. It is down to the strong value proposition and increasing quality of products offered across all price points by competing vendors, most notably Chinese companies.”
The data presented by the research firm this week shows that six of the top 10 global vendors in Q3 are based in China.
Once again, Samsung retained a leading share and volume lead in the global market, accounting for 25% of Q3 2014 shipments.
Apple, on the other hand, enjoyed very strong early shipments of its new iPhones at the end of the quarter, boosting its share to 13%.
In third place was Xiaomi with a 6% share, followed closely by Lenovo at 5%, and Huawei, also at 5%.
