Xiaomi Soars While Samsung Sinks in Gartner Smartphone Market Study

By Don Reisinger

Samsung might still be the world’s largest smartphone seller, but that might not last for long. During the third quarter of 2014, Samsung sold 73.2 million smartphones worldwide, according to research firm Gartner. While that was enough to nab 24.4 percent of the market, shipments were down from the 80.4 million Samsung sold in the third quarter of 2013. During that period, Samsung also had 32.1 percent market share. So this year’s results are a shocking decline.

As Samsung’s troubles with smartphones intensify, the company’s issues with feature phones are also proving concerning. Samsung sold 117 million feature phones during the third quarter of last year, but that figure fell to 94 million in the third quarter of 2014. Again, Samsung is still tops, but its position in the marketplace is not nearly as strong as it once was.

Nokia, which will no longer operate under that name in the mobile market now that Microsoft has scrubbed that brand from its mobile devices, saw feature phone shipments fall considerably in the third quarter. The company sold 43.1 million feature phones in the third quarter, down from the 63 million it sold during the same period in 2013. Nokia also lost 4 percentage points of market share in the past year.

Apple continues to be a powerhouse in the smartphone market. During the third quarter, Apple sold 38.2 million smartphones, making it the second-biggest smartphone maker and the third-largest handset maker worldwide. Although that amounted to just 12.7 percent market share in the smartphone market, Apple’s sales were up nearly 8 million units year-over-year.

Chinese mobile device maker Xiaomi, which has been able to attract customers by offering good-looking products at lower prices, has come on strong in the mobile space. During the third quarter of 2013, Xiaomi sold 3.6 million smartphones worldwide. During the same period this year, that figure jumped to 15.8 million units, securing the company fourth place worldwide and a 5.2 percent market share.

The smartphone market continues to grow at an astounding rate. While the feature phone segment was static in total sales year-over-year, that wasn’t the case for smartphones. During the third quarter of 2013, device makers sold 250.3 million smartphones. That figure was easily dwarfed by the 301 million smartphones sold during the same period this year.

No surprise here, but BlackBerry had a rough third quarter of 2014. The BlackBerry operating system could capture only 0.8 percent of the mobile operating system market on 2.4 million sold units. In the third quarter of 2013, BlackBerry sales stood at 4.4 million units and a 1.8 percent market share. That’s sobering news for BlackBerry.

Android continues to be a juggernaut in the mobile space. The Google operating system secured 83.1 percent of the smartphone market in the third quarter on 250 million units sold. Android’s 2013 market share stood at 82 percent on 205 million units sold.

Windows Phone might have been somewhat of a disappointment for Microsoft during the third quarter. While Windows Phone device sales were up slightly from 8.9 million units last year to 9 million this year, the operating system’s market share was down from 3.6 percent to 3 percent year-over-year.

Looking ahead, Gartner says that the good times should continue for Apple. The iPhone maker is expected to have “its biggest ever fourth-quarter sales” in 2014, thanks to heavy demand Gartner is seeing for both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Meanwhile, Gartner says that Samsung’s issues may only continue as that company’s biggest market—China—increasingly turned its back on its smartphones. In the third quarter alone, Samsung smartphone sales in China were down 28.6 percent year-over-year.