Apple and Samsung tied for the top spot among smartphone companies worldwide with global shipments equal to 74.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Each company grabbed 19.6 percent of the worldwide market during the time period between October and December, according to Strategy Analytics Inc.

Like Us on Facebook

With booming sales of 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, Apple ruled the smartphone market in China, the largest market in the world.

Apple doubled its market share in China to 17 percent from nine percent year-on-year, said Counterpoint Technology Market Research. Demand for big smartphones increased as users prefer it over phones that are too small and tablets that are too big.

Meanwhile, Samsung reported a drop in earnings as 2014 profit fell to US$22.8 billion from US$33.6 billion in 2013. Even the large profit of US$2.5 billion by the semiconductor division couldn't prevent the South Korean company from reporting its first annual decline since 2011.

After recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Lenovo followed the two rival companies with 24.7 million handsets sold, a market share of 6.5 percent.

Despite its rapid success in China, Xiaomi is yet to compete in the global smartphone market. Although the giant tech startup doubled its revenue last year, it only placed sixth in the worldwide market.

When it came to total mobile shipments for the fourth quarter, Samsung led with a total of 90.5 million units sold. Apple took second place with its total 74.5 million iPhones sold. Microsoft followed with 50.2 million phones sold.

Apple opened a massive retail store in Hangzhou, China last Saturday. The new store is currently Asia's largest Apple Store.

Tagsstrategy analytics, iPhone, iPhone 6 Plus, Motorola, Motorola Mobility