A new study by Strategy Analytics has confirmed Apple CEO Tim Cook’s claim that iPhone sales were up a staggering 35 percent year-over-year, making Apple the smartphone maker with the second-highest mobile phone shipments overall, including “feature phones.” The remaining-but-shrinking market for low-end smartphones and feature phones is what keeps Samsung in first, but Apple’s marketshare rose to 10.9 percent share, compared to last year’s 8.2 percent.
While the numbers in share percentages may not sound like much, each percentage point represents four million to five million extra devices sold. Apple’s gain is somewhat reflected in a year-over-year decline from Samsung, which dropped 1.8 percent and shipped some six million fewer units than during the same period last year. Microsoft, however, saw shipments of its Lumia phones plummet nearly 50 percent, which forced it out of third place, while Chinese maker Huawei jumped to seven percent marketshare by increasing sales from a year ago by a third (to 30.6 million units), the fastest growth of the various makers.
Overall cellphone growth globally increased only two percent year-over-year to shipments of 434.6 million units in the June quarter, which the analytics firm said was the smallest increase in two years. Microsoft appears to be feeling the effects most sharply, laying off 7,800 former Nokia employees and taking a $7.6 billion write-down, alongside restructuring charges that could add up to nearly another billion dollars. Despite Samsung’s drop in shipments, it remains the runaway industry leader with 89 million units shipped, compared to second-place Apple’s 47.5 million.
