April 25, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] US tech giant Apple beat its longtime rival Samsung Electronics in terms of quarterly smartphone shipment in the October-December period for the first time in five years.

Apple said in its earnings report on Jan. 31 that it shipped a record 78.29 million iPhones in the fourth quarter, compared to 74.8 million units a year earlier.

Apple’s smartphone shipment in the period is higher than that of Samsung, which, according to tech data firm Strategic Analytics, stood at 77.5 million, down 5 percent on-year from 81.3 million units. A mass recall of 3.02 million Galaxy Note 7 units attributed to the shipment decline, according to analysts.

Apple posted an all-time high quarterly revenue of US$78.4 billion during the fourth quarter thanks to the robust sales of iPhones. The iPad, on the other hand, lost steam as it posted 13 million units shipment in the period, down 22 percent from a year earlier.

For the entire year 2016, Samsung maintained the top spot in the smartphone market by shipping 309.4 million units, amounting to 20.8 percent market share, down 1.4 percent on-year.

Apple came second by shipping 215.4 million units last year, capturing a 14.5-percent market share, down 16.1 percent on-year. While Samsung and Apple saw their respective market share decrease last year, Chinese smartphone makers enjoyed robust growth.

Huawei took the third spot with 138.8 million shipments, up from 107.1 million in 2015. Oppo saw its smartphone shipment grow 99 percent to 84.6 million in 2016 while Vivo shipped 71.9 million smartphones last year, up 84.4 percent from a year earlier.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)