4Q 2014. Gartner says: Apple 20.4%, Samsung 19.9% Lenovo 6.6% on worldwide smartphones market share. Full 2014 Samsung stills #1 .

There are numbers differences between what IDC reasearch firm says here and what Gartner says below:

Gartner Says Smartphone Sales Surpassed One Billion Units in 2014

Smartphone Sales Represented Two-Thirds of Global Phone Market in 2014

In Fourth Quarter of 2014 Samsung Lost No. 1 Position to Apple in Global Smartphone Market

Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users had a record fourth quarter of 2014 with an increase of 29.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013 to reach 367.5 million units, according to Gartner, Inc. Samsung lost the No. 1 spot to Apple in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2014 (see Table 1). Samsung had been in the top spot since 2011. 

In 2014, sales of smartphones to end users totaled 1.2 billion units, up 28.4 percent from 2013 (see Table 2) and represented two-thirds of global mobile phone sales. 

"Samsung's performance in the smartphone market deteriorated further in the fourth quarter of 2014, when it lost nearly 10 percentage points in market share," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Samsung continues to struggle to control its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013. This downward trend shows that Samsung's share of profitable premium smartphone users has come under significant pressure." 

"With Apple dominating the premium phone market and the Chinese vendors increasingly offering quality hardware at lower prices, it is through a solid ecosystem of apps, content and services unique to Samsung devices that Samsung can secure more loyalty and longer-term differentiation at the high end of the market," said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. 

Apple: Apple reported its best quarter ever in the fourth quarter of 2014, which saw it sell 74.8 million units and move to the No. 1 position in the global smartphone market. Apple's first ever large-screen phones continued to see huge demand with sales in China and U.S., growing at 56 percent and 88 percent, respectively. Apple's strong ecosystem and its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus drove strong replacements within the iOS base. These new smartphones also offered new users, who are looking for larger screen phones, a strong alternative to Android. 

Lenovo: In the fourth quarter of 2014, Lenovo*, which includes sales of mobile phones by Lenovo and Motorola, moved to the No. 3 spot in the global smartphone market, reaching 6.6 percent market share and growing 47.6 percent year over year. Lenovo's sales of mobile phones in its home market, China, grew 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. In addition, its strong mobile phone sales in Russia, India, Indonesia and Brazil in the fourth quarter of 2014 helped it grow by 26 percent in the global mobile phone market. 

Chinese vendors, such as Huawei and Xiaomi, are continuing to improve their sales in China and other overseas markets, increasing their share in the mid to low-end smartphone market. "Chinese vendors are no longer followers," said Ms. Cozza. "They are producing higher quality devices with appealing new hardware features that can rival the more established players in the mobile phone market. Brand building and marketing will be key activities in deciding which Chinese vendors can secure a foothold in mature markets." 

The availability of smartphones at lower prices accelerated the migration of feature phone users to smartphones pushing the smartphone operating system (OS) market to double-digit growth in most emerging countries, including India, Russia and Mexico. This trend continued to benefit Android, which saw its market share grow 2.2 percentage points in 2014, and 32 percent year on year (see Table 3). Chinese and other smaller players drove Android's performance in 2014, while more established players at the higher end of the market continued to struggle to increase stickiness to their brands and ecosystems. Windows Phone's performance was flat but it recorded strong results in some markets in Europe, and in the business segment. 

4Q 2014: Samsung shipped 600.000 smartphones more than Apple says IDC. Charts.

Table Notes:

• Data is preliminary and subject to change.
• Vendor shipments are branded device shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.
• The "Vendor" represents the current parent company (or holding company) for all brands owned and operated as subsidiary.
• For year-over-year comparison, an extra line has been added below the quarterly and annual tables to show what Lenovo's growth would have looked like had its acquisition of Motorola been completed prior to the start of the quarter.

Holiday seasonality, strong end-user demand, and a deep selection of models propelled smartphone volumes to a new record level for the quarter and for the year. According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone vendors shipped a total of 375.2 million units during the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14), resulting in 28.2% growth when compared to the 292.7 million units shipped in 4Q13 and 11.9% sequential growth above the 335.3 million units shipped in 3Q14.

For the full year, the worldwide smartphone market saw a total of 1,301.1 million units shipped, up 27.6% from the 1,019.4 million units shipped in 2013.

Having spent 11 quarters prior to 4Q14 as the number two smartphone vendor in terms of shipments, Apple managed to close the gap to a near tie with Samsung in 4Q14. Led by the success of its newer, larger iPhone 6/6+ models, Apple reduced the volume gap to just 600,000 units in the fourth quarter. 

Despite being far more profitable for quite some time, Apple's shipment volumes trailed Samsung's by more than 33 million units during the same quarter a year ago. Continued success from Apple, coupled with the ongoing challenges facing Samsung, could enable Apple to overtake Samsung during the 2015 calendar year. 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. In order for Samsung to regain its share at the top, it will either have to accept lower margins from here forward or revamp its high-end strategy to compete with Apple.

"Most of the industry expected an extremely strong holiday quarter from Apple, especially with regards to the iPhone. However, worldwide shipments of 74.5 million units beat everyone's expectations," said Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "Beyond the record-setting quarter, a few impressive things stand out with regard to Apple. First, at a time when average selling prices (ASPs) for smartphone are rapidly declining, Apple managed to increase its reported ASPs in the fourth quarter due to higher-cost new models. Second, the growth of iPhone sales in both the U.S., which is considered a saturated market, and China, which presents the dual challenges of strong local competitors and serious price sensitivity, were remarkable. Sustaining this growth and higher ASPs a year from now could prove challenging, but right now there is no question that Apple is leading the way."

In 2013 IDC talked about the smartphone industry topping the 1 billion unit milestone, and while year-over-year growth did slow from 40.5% in 2013 to 27.6% in 2014, the market clearly still has legs. This past year volumes surpassed 1.3 billion units and the vendor scenario has witnessed continued shakeups. Growth is forecast to decline to the mid-teens in 2015, but opportunity exists as much of the world's population is either not a wireless subscriber or has yet to move to a smartphone.

"That the worldwide smartphone market grew by 27.6% in 2014 is noteworthy, but it also represents a significant slowdown compared to 2013," said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team. "Mature markets have become increasingly dependent on replacement purchases rather than first-time buyers, which has contributed to slower growth. In emerging markets, first-time buyers continue to provide a lot of market momentum, but the focus has shifted toward low-cost devices, creating a different dynamic for both global and local vendors.

"What remains to be seen is how the vendors beyond Samsung and Apple will assert themselves," added Llamas. "With Lenovo acquiring Motorola, and Xiaomi having greater aspirations beyond China, the competitive pressure will come more from below and less from above. This will make the smartphone race continuously competitive as 2015 shapes up."

Smartphone Vendor Highlights:

Samsung remained the leader in the worldwide smartphone market for the quarter and for the year, but nonetheless experienced continued competitive realities. With increased pressure in the high-end from Apple, and at the low-end to midrange from Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE, and others, Samsung faces a multi-front battle. To this end, Samsung has streamlined its operations and product portfolio to become more competitive in the market.

Apple reached a new quarterly shipment record in 4Q14 and fell just short of surpassing Samsung for overall leadership in the smartphone market. An elevated consumer appetite for big-screen devices, as well as Apple's push into China and other countries, saw iPhone sales up 44% in the U.S. and up 97% in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). Sales doubled year-over-year in China, Brazil, and Singapore. What remains to be seen is how long Apple can sustain this runaway growth.

Lenovo was a distant third in the fourth quarter, narrowly edging out Huawei thanks to the completion of the Motorola acquisition earlier in the quarter. Lenovo continued to dominate the sub-$150 handset market in China with a vast portfolio of devices including the popular Golden Warriors S8 and more expensive flagship Vibe Z2 pro. Lenovo has recently announced that it will bring the Motorola brand back to China in 2015, starting with the Moto X next month.

Huawei returned to the list of top 5 worldwide vendors, emphasizing its midrange and high-end smartphones (P Series and Mate Series respectively), and saw continued success with its Honor line. Huawei attributed its 2014 success to improved brand awareness and overall customer experience, which it will look to evolve even further in 2015.

Xiaomi fell from the third position to fifth in 4Q14, beating out LG for the final spot among the top 5. Even though volumes declined slightly from 3Q14 levels, Xiaomi posted the largest year-over-year growth of all the leading vendors, thanks to a solid demand within its home country of China and a steady release of new devices, including the Mi4 LTE. Xiaomi's grip on the number 5 spot is tenuous at best, with LG and ZTE following close behind.

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