In the decade-long battle between Apple and Samsung, the iPhone maker has traditionally been winning most of the categories that investors care about. It’s had the best-selling smartphone for years in a row, its profits are truly unrivalled, and it’s the undisputed king of the all-important profit margin.
But thanks to Samsung’s dominance in cheap and mid-range smartphones, the South Korean company has been the world’s biggest manufacturer of smartphones (by worldwide market share) since 2012. According to market research firm TrendForce, that’s all about to change.
TrendForce predicts that Apple will take 19.1 percent of the worldwide market share for Q4 2017, the all-important holiday season. That would be up from the Q3 percentage of 11.5 percent, a change driven by the release of the iPhone X, and widespread availability of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and a discounted iPhone SE.
“Samsung is expected to slightly scale back the production of its high-end models in the fourth quarter as the brand is seeing the sales of its smartphones being squeezed by the strong demand for Apple’s latest iPhone devices,” a report seen by MacRumors says. “TrendForce estimates that Samsung’s fourth-quarter total volume will come to 77 million units, a 5% drop from the third quarter.”
Predictions for iPhone X sales are driven by Apple’s own estimates for Q4 2017. The company is forecasting revenue of $84-$87 billion, which would be a huge beat of the previous record quarterly revenue of $78 billion, set in Q4 2016.
Samsung, by contrast, released both of its flagship phones earlier this year, and right now is looking forwards to the release of the Galaxy S9 in early 2018.
