Samsung reclaims top smartphone maker title from Apple

Strategy Analytics has a new report out claiming that Samsung has once again become the number one smartphone manufacturer by units shipped worldwide. Although Samsung doesn’t officially report unit numbers in its earnings call, the analytics firm is estimating 83 million smartphones sold worldwide for the company. IDC is also reporting similar numbers.

Apple, which does report the number of iPhones it shipped, sold 61 million iPhones in the last quarter. Whilst this is a new quarterly record for Apple, it is easily outstripped by Samsung’s estimated numbers by about 20 million units. Apple became the number one vendor last quarter due to the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and mild sales of Samsung’s Galaxy lineup. However, these numbers show Samsung’s latest flagship, the Galaxy S6, is off to a good start.

Although the title of top smartphone manufacturer is important, Apple is not too bothered. It continues to dominate industry profits. The third-place spot, Lenovo, is way behind both Samsung and Apple’s numbers with just 18 million shipments. It will be interesting to see how Samsung’s newest phones fare in the months to come. There is a good chance Apple will retake the number one spot, when it launches its next-generation phones later in the year.

Apple reported a record $13.6 billion in operating profit last quarter, largely due to rising iPhone sales. For comparison, Samsung reported $5.6 billion in operating profit on $44 billion in revenue.