IDC: Apple Records Lowest Year-Over-Year Growth of Leading Vendors

Following Strategy Analytics’ report on the past quarter, it was the turn of International Data Corporation (IDC) to publish their Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker’s findings, which forecasts a total of 281.5 million smartphones shipped worldwide between January and March. This compares to the 218.8 million units estimated for the same period last year (up 28.6%) and the 289.6 million units shipped during the 2013 holiday quarter.

Apple, as we previously reported, has achieved a record second quarter, surpassing the 40 million unit market. IDC highlights the company’s double-digit growth (in Japan) and developing markets such as Brazil, China, India, and Indonesia. Despite record iPhone sales, Apple posted the lowest year-over-year improvement among the leading vendors, the IDC press release notes: 16.8%.

This is significantly lower than Samsung’s 22% growth, who shipped an estimated 85 million smartphones, Huawei’s 47.3% (13.7 million units shipped), and Lenovo’s 63.3% (12.9 million units).

Despite that, Apple remains the second-biggest smartphone manufacturer, with 15.5% market share according to IDC’s number, followed by Huawei in third place with a 4.9% share of the global smartphone market.