SEOUL, Feb. 2 (Yonhap) -- U.S. tech giant Apple Inc. shipped 77.3 million smartphones worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2017, an industry tracker said, overtaking Samsung Electronics Co. in the global market.
Apple captured first place with 19.3 percent global market share, nudging Samsung into second place, Strategy Analytics said in a report posted on its website.
The industry tracker said there was robust demand for iPhone X, though global iPhone volumes have been on the decline on an annual basis for five of the past eight quarters.
Samsung Electronics dipped 4 percent annually and shipped 74.4 million smartphones for 18.6 percent market share worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2017, up slightly from 18 percent market share a year ago.
"Samsung is under pressure from Chinese rivals in some major markets, like China and India, but it remains by far the largest smartphone brand on a global basis, shipping an unmatched 317.5 million units in full-year 2017,” Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said in comments posted Thursday on the website of Strategy Analytics.
The industry tracker said global smartphone shipments tumbled 9 percent annually to reach 400 million units in the October-December period in 2017 -- the biggest annual fall in smartphone history -- due to a collapse in the huge China market.
Still, on a full-year basis, global smartphone shipments grew 1 percent and topped an impressive 1.5 billion units for the first time, according to Strategy Analytics.
Meanwhile, Chinese tech giant Huawei maintained the third position with 10.2 percent global smartphone market share in the fourth quarter, holding steady from the same level a year earlier.
"Huawei is performing well across Asia and Europe, but it is struggling to crack the valuable U.S. market due to limited distribution channels," Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, said in comments posted on the website of Strategy Analytics. "Huawei's goal to be the world's number one or two smartphone vendor is unlikely to happen if it cannot make headway in the United States."
entropy@yna.co.kr
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