Apple beats Samsung in global smartphone sales in Q4, says Gartner

TORONTO – Apple sold the most smartphones globally in the fourth quarter of last year, stripping Samsung of its title as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, according to a recent report from research firm Gartner.

According to the report, Apple sold 74.83 million iPhones worldwide in Q4, compared to the 73.03 million phones sold by Samsung in the same period.

The year before, Samsung sold over 83 million smartphones – Apple sold only 50 million.

“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,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Gartner’s report cites the success of Apple’s first large screen smartphone, the iPhone 6 Plus, as one of the reasons for Apple’s success.

“Apple’s strong ecosystem and its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus drove strong replacements within the iOS base,” read the report. “These new smartphones also offered new users, who are looking for larger screen phones, a strong alternative to Android.”

READ MORE: Apple’s earnings fall despite rising iPhone sales

The ongoing battle between Samsung and Apple entered a new chapter this week when Samsung unveiled its latest flagship smartphones the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.

When the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus came out last fall, Apple eliminated a big reason for buying Samsung phones – the new iPhones were bigger and closely matched Samsung’s Galaxy phones in size. Now, Samsung is trying to catch up to Apple’s camera and design.

Samsung is also going head-to-head with Apple with mobile payments, announcing its own digital wallet solution designed to rival Apple Pay that will go live in the summer.

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– With files from The Associated Press