Samsung overtakes Apple in global smartphone shipments

Galaxy S6 sales helped Samsung regain its leading position in the global smartphone market

Samsung has clawed its way past Apple to regain its title as the biggest smartphone maker by volume, having shipped more than 83 million devices in the first quarter of 2015, according to Strategy Analytics' latest report.

The South Korean firm shipped over 22 million more smartphones than its nearest rival, Apple, and nearly 10 million more than it shipped during the last quarter of 2014.

Year-on-year, however, Samsung's Q1 shipments were nearly six million units down on 2014. This was reflected in its financial results which saw a sales an profit slump but it said the S6 would hopefully buck this trend.

The data from Strategy Analytics suggests this is the case, with Neil Mawston, executive director of putting Samsung's relatively strong performance down to healthy demand for the Galaxy S6.

"Samsung continues to face tough competition from Apple, but recent strong demand for its new Galaxy S6 devices indicates Samsung could deliver an improved performance in the coming second quarter of this year," he said.

"Apple's new iPhone 6 portfolio is flying off the shelves in China and the United States, its two biggest markets," he added, suggesting the US firm will still give Samsung a run for its money.

Mawston also noted that Samsung's Q1 market share had dropped year-on-year from 31 percent to 24 percent, putting it six percentage points above Apple.

"Samsung continued to face challenges in Asia and elsewhere, but its global performance has stabilised sufficiently well this quarter to overtake Apple and recapture first position as the world's largest smartphone vendor by volume," he said.

Apple shipped 61 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2015, down from the 74 million shipments it made during the last three months of 2014, but up by over 17 million devices compared with the same period last year.

In terms of market share, Samsung and Apple are followed by Lenovo-Motorola and Huawei, with 5.4 percent and five percent respectively.

Strategy Analytics also reported that a total of 345 million smartphones were shipped in the first quarter of 2015, an increase of 21 percent over the 285 million units shifted in the same quarter in 2014.

However, shipments had dropped by 15 million from the 380 million units shipped three months earlier in the fourth quarter of 2014, and year-on-year growth has dropped from 33 percent to 21 percent, indicating a slowdown in the smartphone market.

Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics, put this decline down to "increasing penetration maturity in major markets of the US, Europe and China", meaning increasing numbers of people in these regions already have smartphones, and due to the popularity of two-year upgrade cycles are less likely to buy new phones on a yearly basis.

With the smartphone arena becoming increasingly competitive, V3 has a rundown of the top 10 smartphones for 2015.