Samsung lost global smartphone market share for the first time in four years, but the company continues to lead its competitors after shipping an estimated 89 million devices during the first quarter of 2014.
Those figures come from analyst firm Strategy Analytics, which released its own market figures after each vendor published their quarterly reports. Samsung’s loss of market share is perhaps surprising, since it increased its shipment numbers from 69.4 million one year ago, but fit is growing below industry rate.
Apple also grew slower than the market — despite surpassing analyst expectation with 43.7 million iPhone sales last quarter. Strategy Analytics estimates that its market share dropped to 15.3 percent from 17.5 percent one year previous.
Despite releasing the iPhone 5c last year, Strategy Analytics believes Apple could do more in emerging markets.
“Apple remains strong in the premium smartphone segment, but a lack of presence in the entry-level category continues to cost it lost volumes in fast-growing emerging markets such as Latin America,” the company said.
Market share isn’t the only important stat for the smartphone market, of course, but the comment alludes to the long-standing argument that Apple could increase growth if it offered a device for shoppers outside of the premium market. (We’ve previously explained that its low-priced older models sell well in Asia, but that appeal might be affected by dropping the ‘premium-only’ approach.)
Elsewhere, Huawei and Lenovo grew their shipments. Both Chinese firms accounted for 4.7 percent of the market during the first quarter of 2014.
Shipment growth across the industry itself actually declined during the three-month period, yielding a 33.2 percent increase, down from 39.1 percent at the start of 2013.
Headline image via Kimberly White/Getty Images
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.