Samsung retains lead over Apple in global smartphone market, as quarterly smartphone shipments hit 295.3 million worldwide: IDC

Samsung has retained its top position in the worldwide smartphone market over Apple, while shipment volumes boomed during the July quarter, according to figures released by IDC yesterday.

The IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker figures show shipment volumes during the July quarter reached 295.3 million units worldwide, up 23.1% from 240 million units for the same quarter last year.

Samsung retained top position in the global smartphone market, with a global market share of 25.2% off 74.3 million units. However, this was down by 3.9% from 77.3 million a year earlier.

Apple was the world’s second largest manufacturer, with its shipments growing to 35.1 million units, up 12.4% from 31.2 million for the same quarter last year. However, because Apple’s growth rate was slower than the 23.1% growth rate for the overall market, its market share actually fell to just 11.9%.

Chinese electronics giant Huawei took out third place with a shipment volume of 20.3 million units, up a remarkable 95.1% from 10.4 million a year earlier.

Motorola parent company and PC giant Lenovo now claims fourth place in the smartphone market with a market share of 5.4% off 15.8 million units. Meanwhile LG rounds out the top five vendors, with 14.5 million units and 4.9% global market share.