Apple beats Samsung in sales

Apple overtook Samsung in the fourth quarter as the largest smartphone producer in a declining global market for handsets, research firm IDC said. A survey by IDC showed Apple, which reported its quarterly data led all vendors with 77.3 million iPhones sold, giving it a 19.2 per cent market share.

Even though Apple's fourth-quarter unit sales were down 1.3 per cent from a year earlier, it was able to move ahead of South Korea's Samsung, whose 74.1 million devices sold gave it a market share of 18.4 per cent, IDC said.

Huawei held the number three position with a 10.2 per cent market share, followed by fellow Chinese makers Xiaomi and Oppo, with 7.0 and 6.8 per cent, respectively, according to IDC.

Overall smartphone sales were down 6.3 per cent with 403.5 million handsets shipped, according to the survey. IDC said the data showed consumers appeared in no rush to upgrade to the most expensive flagship smartphones from Apple and Samsung.

"The latest flock of posh flagships may have had consumers hitting the pause button in the holiday quarter," said Anthony Scarsella, an IDC research manager. Scarsella said these high-end devices "proved to be more of a luxury than a necessity among upgraders." IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani said that as the top brands expanded their offerings, "brands outside the top five struggled to maintain momentum."

Samsung, which reported a 4.4 per cent decline in the fourth quarter, remained the top smartphone vendor for the full year with a 21.6 per cent market share, to Apple's 14.7 per cent, IDC said. Overall smartphone sales for 2017 were virtually flat -- down 0.1 per cent at 1.47 billion units, the report said.

Huawei's share for 2017 was 10.4 per cent, followed by Oppo (7.6 per cent) and Xiaomi (6.3 per cent), IDC said. Huawei has been seeking to grow its market share but faced a recent setback by failing to strike deals with US carriers, following concerns voiced in Washington over the Chinese maker's ties to the Beijing government.

A separate survey from Strategy Analytics found similar market share for smartphone vendors but found a nine per cent drop in fourth-quarter sales, described as the largest decline in the smartphone era. "The shrinkage in global smartphone shipments was caused by a collapse in the huge China market, where demand fell 16 per cent annually due to longer replacement rates, fewer operator subsidies and a general lack of wow models," said Linda Sui of Strategy Analytics.