Samsung smartphone worldwide sales surges ahead of Apple in the first quarter

Samsung beat out Apple as the biggest vendor of smartphones worldwide in the first quarter of this year, according to research out today from analyst firm Strategy Analytics.

Samsung, held 24.1 percent of the vendor market share in the quarter, while Apple had 17.7 percent. In the fourth quarter of 2014 — the holidays — the two mobile device makers were neck and neck with 19.6 percent market share each.

Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate company head quartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, Samsung shipped 83.2 million smartphones, while Apple shipped 61.2 million, Strategy Analytics said. Lenovo-Motorola and Huawei trailed behind Samsung and Apple. Samsung sells popular Android smartphones like the Galaxy S6 Edge and the Galaxy Note.  While Apple has been increasingly directing its focus at the Apple Watch.

The smartphone market as a whole grew by 21 percent year over year in the quarter, and that figure is lower than the growth rate in every quarter of 2014.