Apple retained its hold in the smartphone segment as its shipments exceed that of Samsung again during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a study by Juniper Research.
Apple shipped 37m iPhones in Q4, which is nearly 25% of the 149m smartphones shipped worldwide in Q4.
However, Samsung managed to increase its market share four-fold since the first quarter of 2010, reaching 21.7%.from 4.7%.
This has, in turn, pressurised Apple to continue offering older models in a bid to stay ahead in the race.
Even as Apple sold 4m iPhone 4Ss within three days of launch, the company’s share was driven by its iPhone 3GS, which was first launched in 2009.
Juniper Research’s Research Analyst Daniel Ashdown said the scale of Samsung’s product range is saturating the market.
"Apple has had to counter Samsung’s products like the Galaxy Ace in order to maintain the visibility of its brand," added Ashdown.
Apart from Apple and Samsung, HTC was the only other player among the top five vendors of smartphones to see a considerable year-on-year growth, as HTC shipped 12.1m devices in Q4.
