iPhone 6 success sees Apple tie for top smartphone vendor slot with Samsung

Lenovo's Motorola Mobility buy also pays off, according to Strategy Analytics

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have seen Apple claw back smartphone share from arch rival Samsung, with the two firms now tied for the top slot for smartphone shipments.

Apple and Samsung both shipped 74.5 million smartphones worldwide in the final quarter of 2014, according to the latest stats from Strategy Analytics, giving them both a 19.6 percent share of the market.

However, Samsung still soundly beat Apple over the course of year, shipping 317.2 million smartphones compared with 192.7 million iPhones in 2014.

The latest stats are more good news for Apple, following the announcement of profits of $18bn for the first quarter of 2015. Sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus drove revenues to $74.6bn for the period.

Revenue from the iPhone range hit $51.18bn for the first quarter, a huge 57 percent increase on the same period last year, and up 116 percent on the previous quarter.

Lenovo's decision to buy the Motorola Mobility division from Google has paid off, with the firm shipping 24.7 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, up from 18.8 million the previous year.

However, the increase in shipments has not helped the firm to take more market share and it still owns only 6.5 percent of the smartphone market.

Chinese phone maker Huawei has also made gains, with 24.1 million smartphones shipped compared with 16.6 million in Q4 2013, and a 6.3 percent share, up from 5.7 percent the previous year.

Overall smartphone sales continued to rise, with 1.3 billion shipped over the course of the year, including 380.1 million in the fourth quarter, up from 290.2 million in 2013.

Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said that Samsung faces competition from Apple at the high end of the smartphone market, Huawei in the middle tiers, and Chinese rival Xiaomi among those at the entry level.

Mawston noted that this pressure should prompt Samsung to consider taking over a phone vendor such as BlackBerry to revitalise growth in 2015.