Samsung Smartphone Shipments Strong in China in Q4 2013, Apple Takes Fifth Place

We often see mobile marketshare data for the U.S. and other Western markets, but China still represents a huge area of growth for the industry, and so it’s interesting to note the relative diversity of shipments in the Middle Kingdom. Research firm IDC is out this week with new shipment data in both China and Taiwan for the fourth quarter of 2013. Samsung performed well during the quarter, but Apple is still number one in Taiwan.

In China, Apple’s rollout of its latest iPhones helped it move up to fifth place, surpassing ZTE, but the company is still small in terms of shipments compared to its Asian competition. There is hope that Apple’s new deal with China Mobile will improve its shipment share this quarter, but early reports show disappointing sales on the world’s largest mobile carrier.

Chart by TekRevue from IDC data

Conversely, Samsung maintained its first place position with 19 percent, although second-place Lenovo is hot on the Korean company’s heels, especially following its acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google. Other Chinese firms Coolpad and Huawei took third and fourth place, respectively, while a variety of devices from smaller companies represented a large, but shrinking, 40 percent of the market.

Across the Taiwan Strait, the picture is significantly different. Apple maintained its first place lead in Taiwan with 30 percent, followed by Samsung at 26 percent, Sony at 16 percent, and HTC at 13 percent. Surprisingly, new Chinese-based mobile firm Xiaomi captured 3 percent of the Taiwanese market, enough for fifth place overall, but was absent from the Chinese top five.

New carrier deals and acquisitions, the absence of formerly major players LG and Acer, and the continued rollout of TD-LTE will make Chinese shipment share numbers in the coming quarters interesting to watch.