Samsung Electronics still leads over Apple Inc. in Q4 shipments

International Data Corp. reported that the largest smartphone maker in the world – Samsung Electronics Co. kept its lead over its most serious rival Apple Inc. during the fourth quarter of 2013. Both companies are said to have lost ground to Chinese vendors.

The market researched IDC, which is based in Massachusetts, made a statement saying that Samsung Electronics posted 28.8% of global smartphone shipments in the three months ended December the 31st, which is a bit lower than the result reached for the same period in 2012 – 29.1%. Apple Inc.s share posted a more serious decrease – from 20.9% to 17.9% of global smartphone shipments.

The Program Director for IDCs Wordlwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker – Ryan Reith, said for Bloomberg: “Cheap devices are not the attractive segment that normally grabs headlines, but IDC data shows this is the portion of the market that is driving volume. Markets like China and India are quickly moving toward a point where sub-150-dollar smartphones are the majority of shipments.”

The leadership in total mobile phone shipments during the fourth quarter of 2013, which includes the traditional mobile debices used mainly for voice calls or texting is also awarded to Samsung Electronics Co. International Data Corp. reported that Samsungs share of total mobile phone shipments fell from 23.5% to 22.9%. Nokia Oyj, which market share fell from 17.8% to 13%, took the second place. IDC said that Apple Inc. ranked third in total mobile-phone shipments with 10.4-percent-share. LG occupied the fourth place in the ranking with its 3.8-percent-share, and Huawei is fifth with 3.7%.

Strategy Analytics released some data showing that Samsung have posted a small increase in its smartphone share for the fourth quarter of 2013. It also revealed, like IDC, that Huawei and Lenovo slowly gain market share, which helped the companies rank among the worlds top five smartphone makers for the full year.

According to Bloomberg, the current share price of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd is 0.23% down, and its one-year return rate is 10.70% down.

According to CNN Money, the current share price of Apple Inc. is 7.99% down, and its one-year return rate is 9.72% down. The 45 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Apple Inc. have a median target of 600.00, with a high estimate of 777.00 and a low estimate of 360.00. The median estimate represents a +18.46% increase from the last price of 506.50.