Apple Inc. maintained its No. 2 position, but its market share fell by 3.3 percentage points to 19.9 percent during the period, Taiwan-based TrendForce said in a press release.
As a result, Samsung widened its lead over Apple to 7.9 percentage points from 1.5 percentage points in the October-December period last year.
TrendForce forecast that in the second quarter, Samsung will ship more than 80 million units, saying that its new flagship Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones have successfully captured consumers’ attention.
It said the ongoing excitement for Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus drove the first quarter shipments of all iPhone products to exceed 55 million units, but Apple's shipments are expected to reach approximately 45 million in the second quarter.
In the first three months of this year, Chinese smartphone brand Huawei moved up one notch to third place with a 7 percent market share, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous quarter. Its compatriot Lenovo fell two notches to fifth as its market share declined from 7.1 percent to 6.0 percent. LG Electronics of South Korea climbed one notch to fourth place with its market share rising by 0.9 percentage point to 6.2 percent.
In the first three months of this year, Chinese smartphone brand Huawei moved up one notch to third place with a 7 percent market share, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous quarter. Its compatriot Lenovo fell two notches to fifth as its market share declined from 7.1 percent to 6.0 percent. LG Electronics of South Korea climbed one notch to fourth place with its market share rising by 0.9 percentage point to 6.2 percent.
Based on its latest research, TrendForce said the global smartphone shipments for the first quarter reached 291.2 million units, down 9.2 percent compared with the prior quarter. It attributed the decline, which was larger than the initial estimation, the weak smartphone market in China.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
