IDC Smartphone Report: Samsung's share slightly increases, Apple's share declines

According to the latest report released by IDC, in the third quarter of 2013, global smartphone shipments reached 258 million units, representing a significant year-on-year increase of 38.8% and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 9.0%. In this quarter, the total global mobile phone shipments (including smartphones) reached 468 million units, increasing by 5.7% year-on-year and 7.0% quarter-on-quarter.

"Smartphone shipments hit an all-time high in the third quarter," said Ryan Reith, analyst at IDC. "The average selling price has dropped significantly, mainly due to the impact of low-end Android solutions, which helped China become one of the fastest-growing markets for smartphones globally. The Chinese market accounted for more than a third of the total shipments in the third quarter, and we expect this trend to continue."

The top five manufacturers still control over half of the global smartphone shipments. Samsung remains at the top with a market share of 31.4% in the third quarter of this year, slightly higher than last year's 31%. Samsung’s smartphone shipments in this quarter exceeded the combined total of the other four manufacturers in the top five.

Apple ranked second with a market share of 13.1%, down from 14.4% last year. Huawei returned to the top five rankings, placing third in the third quarter with a share of 4.8%, narrowly surpassing Lenovo and LG, which had shares of 4.7% and 4.6%, respectively.

The gap between the third, fourth, and fifth positions on the top five list is very small, and their rankings are likely to change in the fourth quarter.

In addition, IDC also released data on mobile phone shipments for the third quarter. Samsung ranked first with a share of 24.7%, followed by Nokia in second place with a share of 13.8%. Apple, LG, and Huawei followed subsequently.

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