Apple’s iPhone 6 has sold so well that the company tied with Samsung as the number one smartphone market in the fourth quarter. Apple is closing the gap with Samsung.
Apple and Samsung both shipped a total of 74.5 million smartphones in the fourth quarter.
The two companies each claimed around 20 percent share of the market, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.
Last year Apple’s iPhone 5 devices only helped the California based company gain 17.6 percent share of the market, versus Samsung’s 30 percent share. But this has all changed since the release of the iPhone 6 devices.
Only a few days ago Apple Inc posted profits of $18 billion made in last year’s fourth quarter, driven by record sales from its new iPhone 6 devices.
“Demand for iPhone has been staggering, shattering our high expectation,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an earnings call.
Tim Cook said that the smaller iPhone 6 was the best selling model, however, he noted that there are some markets that prefer the larger iPhone Plus.
The United States is the company’s largest market, but Chinese demand is surging.
The Chinese market was a huge contributor to the phone’s sales in the last quarter. Sales in the region was up by more than 100 percent year-over-year.
Samsung, on the other hand, is not performing as well as Apple in the smartphone market.
The company is beginning to lose its market share in China to the iPhone 6 as well as lower-end products made by Chinese smartphone makers, such as Xiaomi.
“Samsung may soon have to consider taking over rivals, such as Blackberry, in order to revitalize growth this year,” Strategy Analytics said in a statement.
Samsung was still the number one smartphone vendor for 2014 as a whole though, with a 24.7 percent share. Apple was in second place, with a 15 percent share.
The world’s smartphone market grew by 31 percent in the period, with shipments hitting a record 380.1 million units.
