Apple's iPhone 5S tops Samsung for #1 slot in global smartphone rankings -report

Apple has a good reason to smile.

That’s because Apple’s 5S 16GB is the world’s most popular smartphone for Q1 2014. Number 2 on the list is Samsung’s Galaxy 5S Euro. The rankings were laid out in a new report by ABI Research, a technology marketing firm with offices throughout the world.

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The report disclosed — shocker — that Samsung literally owns 27 percent of the world’s smartphone market. In fact, Samsung’s smartphone offerings earned 3 positions of the Top 5. Not bad. You can read ABI’s rather extensive report here.

The top 5:

1. Apple iPhone 5S 16GB
2. Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 Euro 16GB
3. Samsung Galaxy S3 i9300 16GB
4. Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE i9505
5. Apple iPhone 4S 8GB

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“Samsung’s dominance is driven by its market leading 27 percent market share and despite Apple’s lower market share its small, clearly tiered portfolio creates significant volume for just a few SKUs,” said Nick Spencer of ABI Research.

Sony and LG rounded out the rankings. And for the first year, the Redmi, a $130 mobile device by Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, entered the top 20.

This is interesting because one of the largest and most successful producers of Chinese hardware, Huawei, didn’t make the Top 20.

ABI researchers speculated that Huawei and HTC will likely rejoin their place in the rankings listings by Q2. That’s because Taiwanese cell maker HTC will release a souped up version of their One M8 during that timeframe. And Huawei will release its Ascend P7 then too.

Clearly, according to the list, Apple and Samsung are sitting pretty. Again.

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ABI’s Spencer said:  “The presence of the Samsung Galaxy S3 i9300 16GB and iPhone 4s 8GB in the top five is testament to the enduring appeal of these models and the vendors strong brand, enabling a long and profitable lifecycle, that other vendors can only dream of.”

Last year, 968 million smartphones were sold throughout the world, up nearly 43 percent from 2012, according to research giant Gartner. In 2013, South Korean hardware stalwart Samsung sold nearly 300 million smartphones for a dominant 31 percent share of the smartphone market.

Apple followed with 150 million iPhones sold in 2013, with a 15 percent marketshare, according to Gartner.