April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics led the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2018 by a slim margin ahead of its two archrivals Apple and Huawei Technologies, according to a market research firm on Feb. 1. 

(Yonhap)

Samsung retained the first spot with an 18.4 percent market share, having shipped 69.3 million smartphones worldwide in the fourth quarter, a report by Strategy Analytics showed. 

While it stayed on top of its rivals, the figure is a 7 percent decrease from the same period a year ago when the Korean tech giant sold 74.4 million units.

In the fourth quarter, the smartphone market share among the world’s three largest vendors was separated by a thin gap of around 1 percent. Apple came in second with 17.5 percent, followed by Huawei with 16.1 percent.

Samsung and Apple suffered a slump in sales last year. The Korean firm slipped from 317.5 million units in 2017 to 291.3 million, and Apple from 215.8 million to 206.3 million. On the other hand, Huawei, along with other Chinese players Xiaomi and Oppo, fared much better.

Huawei, which saw a 35 percent full-year growth, is “now just a whisker behind Apple” and isexpected to overtake the US tech firm on a full-year basis worldwide for the first time in 2019, Strategy Analytics Director Woody Oh said.

The smartphone market has declined for the first time with shipments falling to 1.43 billion in 2018 from 1.51 billion the previous year.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)