iPhone shipments rise in down smartphone market
Samsung retains global smartphone crown in the first quarter despite losing ground to Apple.
Samsung is still top dog, but Apple gained ground.
Apple's slice of the global smartphone market grew in the first quarter of 2018 despite an industry seeing cooling demand for handsets.
Global shipments in the quarter fell 2 percent year-over-year to 345 million units, market researcher Strategy Analytics reported Tuesday. Samsung held on the smartphone sales crown by shipping 78.2 million units, a decline of 2 percent year-over-year, giving it a market share of 23 percent.
Apple came in second, shipping 52.2 million units in the quarter, an increase of 3 percent, giving it a market share of 15 percent. Apple's results came amid fears that sales of the iPhone -- its biggest moneymaker -- would not be as strong as the company expected.
"The global smartphone market has slowed down this year, due to longer replacement rates, diminishing carrier subsidies, and a lack of new hardware design innovation," Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement.
No. 3 Huawei saw its shipments grow by nearly 14 percent to 39.3 million units, while No. 4 Xiaomi more than doubled its shipments with 28.3 million units.
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