Apple has beat Samsung to claim the top position as the top smartphone vendor based on shipments in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to a report by Research Firm IDC (International Data Corporation). Apple, as it announced earlier today shipped 78.3 million smartphones during the quarter grabbing 18.3% market share compared to Samsung who shipped 77.5 smartphones grabbing 18.1% market share.
“For the full year, the worldwide smartphone market saw a total of 1.47 billion units shipped, marking the highest year of shipments on record, yet up only 2.3% from the 1.44 billion units shipped in 2015. Large markets like China, the United States, and Brazil all ended the year on a strong note helping to keep worldwide volumes in positive territory.” said IDC.
Regarding the future growth in smartphone segments, IDC said:
Despite the changes that 2016 brought upon the market, including annual growth dropping from 10.4% in 2015 to just 2.3% in 2016, IDC expects a few turnarounds in 2017. First, IDC is forecasting a rebound in iPhone shipments with the yet to be announced tenth anniversary iPhone. Second, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America regions are expected to return to growth in 2017. And, as a result of the aforementioned as well as several other driving factors, growth in 2017 should improve slightly from 2016’s results.
Chinese players Huawei, OPPO and vivo grabbed third, fourth and fifth spots for Q4 2016 with 10.6%, 7.3% and 5.8% market share and for the whole year, respectively. OPPO grew 116.6% YoY in Q4 2016 and 132.9% in 2016 compared to 2015. Even vivo grew 103.2% in 2016 compared to 2015.
Samsung is the top smartphone vendor for the whole 2016 with 21.2% market share beating Apple with market share of 14.6%.