Smartphone shipments said to have banner year in 2015 - CNET

"Usually the conversation in the smartphone market revolves around Samsung and Apple, but Huawei's strong showing for both the quarter and the year speak to how much it has grown as an inteational brand," Melissa Chau, senior research Manager with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said in a statement.

Coming in at No. 3 for the quarter, Huawei delivered the strongest quarterly growth in shipments among the top 5 vendors, according to IDC. The low-cost handset maker posted a 37 percent increase in shipments during the fourth quarter and became only the fourth mobile phone maker to ship more than 100 million units in a year, according to IDC.

Despite reporting declining mobile revenue in the third quarter, Samsung retained its smartphone crown in the fourth quarter by shipping 85.6 million units, an increase of 14 percent compared with the same quarter last year, IDC said. The Korean giant is expected to round out the year with 324.8 million shipments, an increase of only 2.1 percent, the market researcher said.

Meanwhile, No. 2 Apple saw 74.8 million phones shipped in the fourth quarter, a new high, IDC noted, but only 300,000 units more than it shipped in the fourth quarter of 2014. Strong demand in China and the US is expected to help Apple finish the year with 231.5 million phones shipped, an increase of 20.2 percent over the previous year.