Samsung ships 89 million smartphones in Q1

Samsung's market share has dropped by a fraction, despite the firm selling 89 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2014.

The Korean giant now has a 31 per cent share of the smartphone market, down by 1 per cent year-on-year, according to Strategy Analytics.

Samsung also reported a 3 per cent drop in operating profit year-on-year to 8.5 trillion won ($8.2 billion). Profit in the mobile division was down by 1.2 per cent to 6.43 trillion won compared to 2013.

Meanwhile, arch-rival Apple sold 43.7 million iPhones worldwide in the last quarter and it has a market share of 15 per cent. Analysts believe that the lack of a true entry-level iOS device is costing Cupertino the chance to shift large volumes in fast-growing emerging markets like Latin America.

Competition during 2014 is expected to come from Huawei and Lenovo, which both have a 5 per cent share in the smartphone market.

"Huawei is expanding swiftly in Europe, while Lenovo continues to grow aggressively outside China into new regions such as Russia," it was noted in an excerpt of the Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) report.

With Lenovo about to close its acquisition of Motorola, the Chinese firm is expected to become a bigger player in the mobile space by the end of the year.

Despite the perception that the smartphone market is saturated, the analyst firm reported that global smartphone shipments grew 33 per cent year-on-year. A total of 285 million were sold in Q1 2014, compared to 213.9 million in the same period last year.