1.3 billion smartphones shipped in 2014; Xiaomi ends year ranked 5th globally

2014 was a blockbuster year for smartphones, with 1.3 billion shipped in 2014, says the latest data from IDC. That’s up 27.6 percent from the 1.02 billion figure in 2013.

The final quarter of the year, Q4 2014, saw a total of 375.2 million smartphones shipped out, which is up 28.2 percent from Q4 2013.

The big news is that Apple came amazingly close to toppling Samsung’s statue. Xiaomi remains in the global top five, though it dropped a couple of positions:

Q4 2014 smartphone rankings

• 1st – Samsung remains the market leader, but now it’s by a very slim margin. IDC says Apple has narrowed the gap to a mere 600,000 units in Q4, compared to Samsung’s monster lead of more than 33 million units in the same period a year before. The Korean giant shipped 75.1 million smartphones in Q4, in IDC’s own data.
• 2nd – Apple is booming thanks to the larger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The company revealed in its earnings report earlier this week that it sold 74.5 million iPhones in Q4, which is a record high.
• 3rd -Lenovo is, says the IDC crew, “a distant third in the fourth quarter, narrowly edging out Huawei thanks to the completion of the Motorola acquisition earlier in the quarter.” It seems Lenovo would be fourth if Motorola’s shipments were not clumped together with Lenovo’s in this confusing way.
• 4th -Huawei is now back in the top five after a strong 2014. The company will reveal a sales figure for the year soon. Going into 2015, Huawei plans to focus on mid-range and high-end phones.
• 5th – Xiaomi sold 61 million phones in 2014, according to its own data. Despite that record high, Xiaomi dropped from third to fifth in the global shipments rankings.
• 6th – LG shipped 59.1 million smartphones in 2014, the company revealed this week.

“Samsung’s challenges have not only come from Apple, but also from the increasing number of low-cost Android OEMs that are putting out products at much lower margins,” notes the report. That’s exemplified in China by Xiaomi, whose US$320 Mi4 phone matches or beats Samsung’s high-end US$800 phones on specifications and looks. In India, homegrown brands like Micromax are also stepping up their game and beefing up their phones in order to tackle Samsung – and also fend off Xiaomi as it enters new markets.

See: Apple’s China revenues went through the roof last quarter