Samsung and Nokia are 2014's biggest smartphone losers

Samsung, the largest smartphone supplier, has had a surprising year and reported losing over 20 million sales, compared to 2013.

Samsung sold 7 million less units in Q3 and 23 million less overall in 2014, compared to the previous year. The Galaxy S5 has been a huge letdown for Samsung, selling less than 20 million units in 2014, a number Apple’s iPhone 6 has already surpassed.

Samsung has reportedly reformed the mobile division, to create more competitive products to excite customers in 2015. The competition on Android is fierce, with top-tier smartphones like the Moto X and HTC One M8, so it might take more than a piece of metal for Samsung to win back customers.

Lower-cost feature phone sales were also down for Samsung with fierce competition, such as Xiomi and Micromax entering India and China. Even in its home nation of South Korea, Samsung lost to LG and Apple for most of the year in sales.

Nokia had troubles in 2014 as well, losing 20 million customers in 2014. Microsoft’s $7.2 billion (£4.9 billion) acquisition has still not shown any change in fortune, even after CEO Satya Nadella sacked 18,000 workers from the hardware division.

This year’s big winner is Xiaomi, the Chinese based manufacturer sold 15.7 million smartphones in Q3 2014, compared to 3.6 million in 2013. Xiaomi has become the largest smartphone maker in China and the expansion to India and Singapore has shown excellent sales results.

Huawei and Lenovo, the two other mobile giants in China, seen growth in the mobile market, although considerably less than Xiaomi.

Apple also had a sales increase in Q3 2014, selling 8 million more units than last quarter. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have worked wonders with South-East Asian audiences, and even in Europe, Apple is seeing growth.

Google’s Android OS now holds 83 percent of the overall mobile market, iOS sits comfortably in second with 12.7 percent and Windows Phone has dropped to 3.6 percent in 2014. BlackBerry has been wiped off the records with under one percent share.

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