Samsung reclaims throne from Apple, ships 83.2m units in Q1 2015

Samsung might have posted less than impressive financial results for its first quarter but it would appear that it’s not all gloom for the company. According to the latest research by Strategy Analytics, Samsung has reclaimed the smartphone shipments crown in the first quarter of 2015.

Going by the latest figures, smartphone shipments saw a growth of 21% in globally, reaching 345-million units in the first quarter of 2015. In this quarter, Samsung overtook Apple to reclaim the title of the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume.

The South Korean company shipped 83.2-million smartphones in total worldwide and captured 24% market share in Q1 2015. Positive news but this a drop of 7% year-on-year.

“Samsung continued to face challenges in Asia and elsewhere, but its global performance has stabilised sufficiently well this quarter to overtake Apple and recapture first position as the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume,” the research post reads.

Apple shipped 61.2-million smartphones worldwide and captured 18% market share in Q1 2015, a 15% improvement from its numbers in Q1 2014. This is mainly due to is popularity in China.

Read more: Apple earnings report: iPhones destroy iPads, China pays off

Behind these two giants, slipping seven percent from last year in global smartphone market share in the first quarter, is Lenovo-Motorola. Huawei ranks fourth, shipping 17.3-million smartphones for a five percent share.

“Huawei is expanding rapidly online in China and through retailers across Africa, enabling it to become an emerging powerhouse in developing regions,” the research notes.

Though there is an increase in the number of smartphones shipped, there is a slowing growth on an annualized basis, with shipments droping from 33% to 21 % in the past year. The research suggests that this is due to increasing penetration maturity in major markets of the US, Europe and China.