Apple just surpassed Microsoft in global mobile phone shipments

Apple surpassed Microsoft last quarter to become the second-largest mobile phone vendor in the world, according to the latest data from Strategy Analytics. Mobile phone figures include both feature phone sales and smartphone sales.

• Shipments of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus grew 35% year-over-year from Q2 2014.
• Apple shipped a total of 47.5 million smartphones during the quarter.
• The company now controls almost 11% of the global market for mobile phones.

While Samsung still leads Apple, it did lose global market share last quarter, falling 2.2 percentage points year-over-year to account for 20.5% of global mobile phone shipments in Q2 2015. This contraction was largely the result of Samsung's stunted performance in the first half of this year. Here are some other key outcomes:

• Microsoft suffered a big drop in market share, falling from second place in Q2 2014 to fourth place this quarter. This is likely due to the poor performance of its Lumia devices as it awaited the launch of Windows 10 at the end of July. While the Lumia was popular in India last quarter, it failed to gain wider traction in other markets.
• Chinese vendors continue to grow their market share. Huawei leap-frogged Microsoft to enter third place with 7% of the global market for mobile phones. The company's 4G models, like its Mate7, performed particularly well in most regions. Meanwhile, Xiaomi finished in the top five with 4.6% market share behind Microsoft.
• Xiaomi may be slowing down. After experiencing massive growth over the past 18 months, Xiaomi's local and international growth has started to fade. Competition from rival low-end phone vendors, like Meizu and OnePlus, have hurt sales in recent months.

One of the driving forces behind Apple's ascent was the success of the iPhone and iPhone 6 Plus in China, until recently the world's fastest-growing market for smartphones.

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