Apple overtakes Samsung in global smartphone sales for the first time since 2011

Apple overtook Samsung to become the number one smartphone retailer in the fourth quarter of 2014, knocking the South Korean giant off the top spot for the first time since 2011, according to new figures from Gartner.

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Apple overtook Samsung to become the number one smartphone retailer in the fourth quarter of 2014, knocking the South Korean giant off the top spot for the first time since 2011, according to new figures from Gartner.

Worldwide smartphone sales saw a record fourth quarter, totaling 367.5 million units.

In 2014, sales of smartphones totaled 1.2 billion units overall -- an increase of 28.4 percent from 2013, representing two-thirds of global mobile phone sales.

'Samsung continues to struggle to control its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013,' says Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. 'This downward trend shows that Samsung's share of profitable premium smartphone users has come under significant pressure.'