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Apple has edged past Samsung in terms of global smartphones sales, according to one analyst.
Towards the end of January it seemed as if Apple had managed to draw level with Samsung for global smartphone sales during Q4. The two tech titans appeared to be tied on 74.5 million units.
According to a new Gartner report, however, Apple actually overtook its great smartphone rival during this period. The research firm reckons that Apple sold 74.8 million handsets, while Samsung sold just 73.03 million.
It's a slender margin, but an impressive one nonetheless. Apple's smartphone sales jumped 49 percent during the fourth quarter, according to the report, while Samsung's dropped 12 percent.
Apple's performance is quite remarkable given that its smartphone range is inherently much more limited than Samsung's. While the Korean company releases a number of handsets each year from across the pricing spectrum, Apple sticks to one or two new releases - and both are at the premium end of the market.
Of course, Apple did have the momentum of a fresh flagship phone release in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus during Q4. Meanwhile, Samsung has only just taken the wraps off the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, and they won't hit shops until April.
Read More: iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy S5
Still, it underlines the worrying state of decline that affected Samsung through much of 2014. "Samsung continues to struggle to control its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013," says Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.
Will an expensive dual-curved smartphone be enough to halt that slide?
