According to Gartner, which calls the difference between the top two companies as the narrowest it has ever been. Apple managed to beat Samsung to the top spot by just 256,000 units. The US-based company managed to attain a 17.9 percent share of the market, or 77 million phones, compared to Samsung at 17.8 percent.
However, perhaps the star of the entire report, unsurprisingly, was Huawei, which saw its sales increase by 26.7 percent overall for the year, compared to Apple and Samsung, both of which saw sales decline.
The rapidly-rising Chinese maker saw sales of 40.8 million smartphones in the last quarter, helping further narrow the lead to the big two. Oppo followed next with 26.7 million in sales, followed by the virtually unknown BBK Communication, which owns brands such as Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus and is the largest phone brand in China now.