Samsung’s global smartphone shipments rose in the third quarter for the first time in six quarters, but its share slipped slightly in part because Apple shipments soared 22 percent, Strategy Analytics found.
Samsung shipments rose 6 percent to 83.8 million units, and though up, Samsung’s growth did not keep pace with global industrywide growth of 10 percent to 354 million units. Samsung’s smartphone division “is back on the road to recovery,” said executive director Neil Mawston. “Samsung’s smartphone growth is being driven by select price cuts and attractive new models like the Galaxy Note 5, A8 and J5.”
Despite Samsung’s growth, the company’s smartphone share dipped to 23.7 percent from the year-ago 24.5 percent as Apple’s share rose to 13.6 percent from 12.2 percent. Apple shipments were up 22 percent in the quarter to 48 million.
Though industrywide shipments are up, the quarter marked “the smartphone industry’s slowest growth rate for six years since the depths of the global economic recession back in 2009,” said strategy Analytics director Linda Sui. “Smartphone growth is slowing due to increasing penetration maturity in major markets of the U.S., Europe and China.”
