It not only propelled Apple's profit to $18 billion — the biggest quarterly profit posted by any company, ever — but also may have dethroned Samsung as the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world.
SEE ALSO: How big was Apple's first quarter? Pretty damn big
Samsung did not publicly disclose the number of smartphones sold in the quarter, so this statistic hasn't been confirmed. The South Korean company did say on Thursday, however, that it sold 95 million handsets in Q4, 70% of which of which were smartphones (that's 71 to 76 million).
An important distinction: When referring to unit sales, Samsung typically uses the term "shipped," which means the actual number of units sold might be lower. Samsung typically uses the term "shipped," which means the actual number of units sold might be lower. Apple used the term "sold" for its 74.5 million iPhones, but several analysts argued that the company is also referring to units shipped, not actually units sold to customers.
Regardless, the numbers cut it pretty close, and analysts mostly agree that Apple comes out ahead. According to a report from Strategy Analytics on Wednesday, the two companies sold exactly the same number of smartphones: 74.5 million.
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http://mashable.com/2015/01/29/apple-samsung-smartphone-sales/
