Samsung remained the leader with sales up 14 percent to 85.6 million units in the latest quarter, compared to a year earlier, and 324.8 million in 2015, up 2.1 percent from 318.2 million in 2014. With continuously increasing pressure in the high end from Apple, and at the low end to midrange from Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE, and others, Samsung faces a multi-front battle.
Apple’s fourth quarter shipments were up by only 0.3 percent to 74.8 million units. For the full year, however, Apple boosted its shipments by 20.2 percent to 231.5 million units. The operator benefited from continued demand for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, particularly in China and the US. New features such as Force Touch and Apple Pay helped drive upgrades and attract a record number of switchers from Android.
Huawei saw the highest growth in the fourth quarter, 37 percent. It also became the world’s fourth mobile vendor to sell over 100 million units in a year, after Nokia, Samsung and Apple. Huawei is one of the few Chinese brands to achieve global diversification, with almost half of its shipments going outside its home market. The company is expected to hold onto a strong number three position in 2016.
The fourth and fifth biggest vendors were Lenovo and Xiaomi. IDC writes that Lenovo was still trying to find its feet one year after its acquisition of Motorola. Lenovo is facing greater competition in its domestic market from smaller competitors at the low end. There were fewer groundbreaking new models from Motorola in 2015, compared to its successful Moto G and Moto X handsets a year ago.
Xiaomi was able to widen its lead over sixth placed LG although it relied heavily on the Chinese market for its growth. Xiaomi’s sales in China accounted for 90 percent of its volumes in 2015. The bulk of sales still comes from its low-end Redmi brand, but it spent the year trying to encourage a transition to mid-range models.
