A recent statistical data of global smartphone shipments for last year has shown that Apple did beat Samsung to emerge as the top brand last year. If you are a fan of Apple, don’t start jubilating just yet. Apple only edged out Samsung in the fourth quarter of 2016, recording a total of 78.3 million iPhone sales as against 77.5 million recorded by Samsung during the same period.

The huge sales figure gave Apple control over an estimated 17.8% of the entire smartphone market in Q4 2016, while Samsung came in second with 17.7% share. However, in the analysis of smartphone shipments for the entire year, Samsung maintained its strong grip of the market leadership, coasting home with 309.4 million shipments in 2016, giving it a 20.8% control of the entire market. Apple still retained her second position despite losing out its leadership of the Chinese market, with an estimated total shipment of 215.4 million units, representing 14.5% of the entire market share.

Despite the huge figures, the duo of Samsung and Apple saw a slight decline in the number of shipments made in 2016, when compared to the figure achieved in 2015. Samsung shipped 10.3 million fewer handsets last year, while Apple delivered 16.1 million fewer phones when compared to 2015. Both tech giants did lose some of their market shares to Huawei and emerging brands like OPPO and Vivo, which also made the list of the top five global smartphone company last year in terms of shipments. Huawei occupied the third position with a 9.3% share. BBK subsidiaries, OPPO and Vivo finished fourth and fifth with 5.7% and 4.8% of the market, respectively.

Read Also: OLED Display on iPhone X May Reduce Apple’s Profits for Q2 2017

In general, global smartphone shipments rose by 3% to reach 1.5 billion units during the 12 months of the year. According to Strategy Analytics, strong demand for smartphones in China and Africa provided the platform for the increased shipping figures for the industry.
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It’s no news that this year marks 10 years since the first iPhone was released. To celebrate the event, rumor has it that Apple will launch an anniversary edition called the iPhone X which will have an OLED display.

An analyst at Cowen & Company, Timothy Arcuri says the decision to use an OLED display will add about $50 million to the company’s cost for the second quarter. This will in turn reduce profit margins.

Sources say that Apple has an agreement with Samsung to be the sole supplier for the 5.8-inch OLED display in the iPhone X. The outcome of that partnership has thrown a spanner in the works of other manufacturers like Huawei, Vivo and OPPO who wish to purchase OLED displays from Samsung. This has led them to form a partnership that will invest in a smaller company that manufactures OLED screens.

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Timothy Acuri also provided hints of what to expect next week when Apple announces its shipments for Q4 2016. According to him, he predicts a total shipment of about 76 million units which is not much different from that of the previous year. Revenue may however be higher due to the large share of the costlier iPhone 7 Plus which he estimates to have shipped 23.5 million units as against the iPhone 7′ 35 million units. Predictions for other products such as the iPhone SE, iPads and Apple watches are 8 million, 13.5 million and 5.4 million units respectively.

For Q2 2017, Mr Acuri predicts iPhone sales entering 50 million units, 10 million iPads, and 5.4 million Apple Watches.

(Source)

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