The last months of this year will see one of the most intensive marketing battles yet in the decade-old smartphone war as Samsung fights off the threat of Apple's new iPhone X. At the end of last year, Apple narrowly edged out Samsung in global smartphone sales, taking 17.8% market share for the last quarter versus Samsung's 17.7%, according to Strategy Analytics. However, that was made possible by Samsung recalling five million Note 7 phones after a few dozen caught fire due to a battery defect. As iPhone sales underwent their usual new-year slump in the following quarter, Samsung reopened a wide margin at the top, with IDC giving it 22.8% market share to Apple's 14.9%. And for the full year, Gartner figures showed an even bigger gap, putting Samsung's market share at 22.5% and Apple's at 12.1%. With this comeback, ironically, the failure of one product underlined Samsung's strength."We've proven that we are a diverse technology organisation, able to achieve significant growth and ...
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