The smartphone crown goes to Samsung, at least for the first quarter of the year, as the company managed to ship more smartphones last quarter than any other manufacturer, including Apple, and that’s BEFORE the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge even launched. Even so, the company still suffered some year-over-year declines due to how much Samsung has been struggling in China.
Samsung extended its lead over Apple in terms of worldwide smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2015, before the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge even began shipping. The gap between the two smartphone manufacturers will widen in the second quarter, according to technology market intelligence firm TrendForce. In the first quarter, a total of 291.2 million smartphone units were shipped around the world, a 9.2 percent decline from the 320.8 million units shipped in the prior quarter. The larger-than-expected drop is attributed to a weak market in China, according to Taiwan-based TrendForce. Samsung was the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer in the first quarter, claiming 27.8 percent of all worldwide shipments. Apple was second with 19.9 percent of the market. In the fourth quarter of 2014, the gap between the two top dogs was narrower (24.7 percent of Samsung, 23.3 percent for Apple).