Apple smartphones continue surge in China; Samsung sees decrease
Analysts with United Kingdom-based Juniper Research tracked 350.9 million smartphones shipping in the first quarter of 2015; that’s a 23% increase from the same time period last year.
Juniper found that Samsung is the leading smartphone seller, although its shipments decreased 4% year-over-year to around 82 million units in Q1.
Apple, on the other hand, hit record quarterly shipments of more than 61 million units. Juniper reports that figure as an astonishing 40% year-over-year increase for the American company.
Apple’s surge in sales is being driven by the lucrative Chinese market, where sales increased by 71% compared to Q1 2014. That equates to regional revenue of $16.8 billion, according to Juniper.
Juniper analysts expect “Samung’s performance to improve in coming months – the S6 and the S6 Edge have had a better reception than the S5, as well as boasting new features in the case of the Edge, and have several international markets to break into.”
In April, Bloomberg reported that Samsung will win the contract to manufacture Apple’s A9 chips for the next iPhone.
Samsung made Apple’s chips for years until the two companies found themselves at war in the smartphone market and the courts. Apple turned to Taiwan’s TMSC to make its chips for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Since Apple designs its own chips, the manufacturing decision is likely based on cost, quality and turnaround time considerations. Samsung has invested heavily in its chipmaking facilities in order to stay competitive in these areas, and has licensed its 14-nanometer process technology to Globalfoundries in order to create a larger base of manufacturing facilities that use its processes.
Juniper Research analysts anticipate a big second quarter for Apple driven by the release of the Apple Watch.
