SA: Apple matches Samsung's smartphone sales in Q4 2014

Thanks to the record-smashing sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple has tied with Samsung to become the top smartphone vendor in the world in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a Strategy Analytics report.

The Cupertino-based company shipped a total of 74.5 million smartphones in the last quarter, up from 51 million it shipped in the same quarter in 2013. On the other hand, although Samsung too shipped the same number of handsets, there was a decline compared to Q4, 2013, when the company had shipped 86 million smartphones.

For the year as a whole, Samsung remained at the top with total shipments of 317.2 million, which translates into 24.7% share of the market. This compares to 2013, when the company's overall smartphone shipments stood at 319.8 million, giving it a 32.3% market share.

"Samsung continues to face intense competition from Apple at the higher-end of the smartphone market, from Huawei in the middle-tiers, and from Xiaomi and others at the entry-level," the report said, adding that the company "may soon have to consider taking over rivals, such as Blackberry, in order to revitalize growth this year."

Apple came in next with total shipments of 192.7 million units, capturing 15% of the smartphone market. That was up from the 153.4 million shipments the Cupertino-based company reported for 2013. Chinese players Lenovo and Huawei captured the third and the fourth spots with 7.2% and 5.8% market share, respectively.

Overall, 380.1 million smartphone units were shipped in Q4 2014, up 31 percent year-on-year, while a total of around 1.3 billion smartphones shipped for the whole year.