Smart phone market 2014: Apple, Chinese vendors share up but Samsung down

TrendForce reported the smart phone shipment in the year 2014 has reached 1.167 billion units, an annual growth of 25.9%. Samsung has retained its top position, but its share is falling. The second biggest smartphone vendor Apple has grown its share. It was a good year for China-based vendors whose combined shipments reached 453.4 million units, which is almost 40% of the global shipments and represent six of the top ten smartphone brands worldwide, as per Trendforce. Avril Wu, global smartphone analyst of TrendForce says "fierce competition among the brands relatively and severely narrowed their (Chinese vendors) profit margins”. Samsung's share in the total market is 28% in 2014 compared with 32.5% in 2013. iPhone 6 Plus from Apple competed well with Samsung's Galaxy Note series. Whereas Samsung's mid-range and low priced smart phones had lost their market share to Chinese and other Asian vendors. Samsung's annual growth in shipments only at 8.4% (around 326.4 million units). says Trendforce. Other findings shared by TrendForce includes: In 2014, Apple maintained its high annual growth rate of 24.5%, which translates to 191.3 million units shipped worldwide for the entire year. With 16.4% market share, Apple was a solid number two in the worldwide smartphone rankings. Apple’s position was attributed to the success of its first large-size smartphone model, the...