For the second consecutive year, the company Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), again passed the company Samsung in smartphone sales, and this year the Koreans no longer have a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 to blame for poor performance. Apple announced yesterday that it sold 77.3 million smartphones in Q4 2017, 900.000 units less than in Q4 2016, but that did not affect its position as the leader in the smartphone market in the last fiscal quarter of 2017.
Samsung, on the other hand, recorded a much larger decrease in smartphone sales, of over 3 million units, adding to a big gap with Apple in smartphone sales. The information comes from Strategi Analytics, the global market analysis company, stating that Samsung sold 74.4 million smartphones in Q4 2017, 3.9 million units less than Apple in the same period.
Apple again surpassed Samsung in smartphone sales
Samsung recorded an increase in smartphone sales in 2017, which was 8.1 million units, while for Apple an increase of only 400.000 units is observed for the entire year. The difference between Apple and Samsung in annual smartphone sales has now reached 102 million units, almost 50% of total iPhone sales in 2017, but that's perfectly normal, considering what the two companies sell.
| Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments (Millions of Units) | Q4 '16 | 2016 | Q4 '17 | 2017 |
| Samsung | 77.5 | 309.4 | 74.4 | 317.5 |
| Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), | 78.3 | 215.4 | 77.3 | 215.8 |
| Huawei | 44.9 | 138.8 | 41.0 | 153.0 |
| OPPO | 29.5 | 87.1 | 29.5 | 118.0 |
| Xiaomi | 14.9 | 58.7 | 27.8 | 91.3 |
| Others | 193.6 | 678.8 | 150.2 | 611.9 |
| Total | 438.7 | 1488.2 | 400.2 | 1507.5 |
| Global Smartphone Vendor Marketshare (%) | Q4 '16 | 2016 | Q4 '17 | 2017 |
| Samsung | 17.7% | 20.8% | 18.6% | 21.1% |
| Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), | 17.8% | 14.5% | 19.3% | 14.3% |
| Huawei | 10.2% | 9.3% | 10.2% | 10.1% |
| OPPO | 6.7% | 5.9% | 7.4% | 7.8% |
| Xiaomi | 3.4% | 3.9% | 6.9% | 6.1% |
| Others | 44.1% | 45.6% | 37.5% | 40.6% |
| Total | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| Total Growth: Year-over-Year (%) | 8.9% | 3.3% | -8.8% | 1.3% |
| Source: Strategy Analytics |
Separated from Apple and Samsung, Huawei did not enjoy those colossal sales that were announced by journalists paid by the Chinese and they were far behind Apple and Samsung, including in terms of annual sales. Those from Oppo still do much better, and Xiaomi almost doubled its sales in a smartphone market that grew extremely little in 2017 compared to 2016, but that was to be expected in the entire global context.
