Data from Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartpphone Strategies services indicates that smartphone shipments reached a record 990 million units in 2013, up 34% from 700 million units in 2012. Global smartphone shipment growth slowed slightly, from 43% in 2012 to 41% in 2013, a consequence of high market penetration of smartphones in the US and Western Europe.  

In a press release Strategy Analytics noted that the top 5 smartphone vendors for 2013 were Samsung (313.8 million units), Apple (153.4 million), Huawei (50.4 million), LG (47.6 million), and Lenovo (45.5 million). The latter three manufacturers grew their smartphone shipments at twice the industry average:

Huawei is expanding swiftly in Europe, while LG’s Optimus range is proving popular in Latin America, and Lenovo’s Android models are selling at competitive price-points across China. Samsung and Apple will need to fight hard to hold off these and other hungry challengers during 2014. 

Apple's market share feel from 19% to 15% year on year, but this is not a particularly useful metric, as it is a reflection of the growth in the low end of the smartphone market, an area that Apple does not compete in. More relevant is that Apple increased its unit shipments from 135.8 million to 153.4 million.

The numbers for both Apple and Samsung underline the competitive situation facing Windows Phone and Nokia. Nokia, with just over 30 million Lumia shipments in 2013, was around 20 million devices short of making the top 5 manufacturers. Windows Phone was in third place in the platform rankings, some way ahead of BlackBerry, but was a very long way behind Android (~780 million) and iOS (153.4 million).

Strategy Analytics' numbers can be compared to the IDC 2013 report of 1 billion smartphone unit shipments, which we reported on yesterday. The small difference between the two reports is the result of differing metholdogy and sampling techniques.