Samsung smartphone market share slips, Apple misses entry-level sales, Chinese manufacturers fill the gap

Smartphone shipment figures from Strategy Analytics show Samsung lost nearly 1% of its leading global market share, which was down to 31.2% in Q1 2014 from 32.4% a year before.

But as the worldwide market continues to expand, Samsung increased it raw shipping number to 89m units in the quarter from 69.4m.

Apple also dropped in market share from 17.5% to 15.3%, as it increasingly loses out in the entry-level smartphone market because it hasn't produced an low-end smartphone.

Another major trend shown by the figures is an increasing share being taken by Chinese manufacturers like Huawei.

There are also other lesser known Chinese companies making significant inroads in the low and middle end sectors.

First adopters are taking a keener interest in manufacturers such as Oppo and One Plus who are producing high-spec phones at comparatively bargain prices.

And the general trend seems to be consumers are getting fed up paying premium prices for smartphones and are expecting much more for their money in the low and middle sectors.

Exhibit 1: Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments and Market Share in Q1 2014  [1]

Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments (Millions of Units)	Q1 '13	Q1 '14
Samsung	69.4	89.0
Apple	37.4	43.7
Huawei	10.0	13.4
Lenovo	8.4	13.3
Others	88.7	125.6
Total	213.9	285.0
Global Smartphone Vendor Marketshare %	Q1 '13	Q1 '14
Samsung	32.4%	31.2%
Apple	17.5%	15.3%
Huawei	4.7%	4.7%
Lenovo	3.9%	4.7%
Others	41.5%	44.1%
Total	100.0%	100.0%
Total Growth Year-over-Year %	39.1%	33.2%
Source: Strategy Analytics