Summarizing the landscape in Q3 2014 below:
- Global handset shipments grew 7% annually as 3G/4G smartphone demand continued to ramp globally
- LTE was the fastest growing segment as the total demand more than doubled compared to last year and crossing 100 million units in a quarter for the first time ever.
- LTE shipment volumes could overtake the shrinking 2G GSM segment over the next few quarters as the number two cellular-access technology behind 3G UMTS/WCDMA/HSPA
- Samsung surpassed Apple to dominate the high-value LTE segment with a 32% share in Q3 2014 but we estimate Apple to take back the leading position in the Q4 holiday season with the help of its newly launched iPhone 6 & 6 Plus models
- Apple & Samsung together captured 60% of the global LTE segment volumes down from 70% in Q3 2014 as brands such as Chinese brands are taking share away from incumbents in the high growth China LTE
- USA & China remained the top LTE countries contributing to more than half of the global LTE shipments
- LTE volumes in China are rising steadily with growing % share of domestic OEMs taking share away from Samsung, Apple and others
- In TD-SCDMA segment, Chinese OEMs (Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo) dominated with a record combined share of 90% during the quarter
- In 3G UMTS/WCDMA segment, Samsung dominated in Q3 2014 with 24% share followed by Nokia, LG, Xiaomi, Alcatel One Touch and others