Kantar: Samsung sales stall in China and Europe despite Android's overall growth

Thanks to its latest earnings report, we already knew that Samsung's market share dropped last quarter. But analytics outfit Kantar has now shown us mainly where: the all-important Chinese and European markets. According to its figures, the Korean giant has slipped 2.2 percent in France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany over last year while remaining flat in China during the same period. Since Android's overall wedge of the smartphone pie increased 5 percent in China, that means Samsung has lost ground to local companies like Xiaomi, which is now the sales leader in that nation. All that could change soon, of course, as Samsung is due to launch its Galaxy S 5 flagship in the next month or two.

While Apple's iOS dropped in most markets over last year, it held strong in key markets like China and the UK, while accounting for 44 percent of holiday handset sales in the US. Cupertino is also king of Japan with 69 percent of total smartphone share, due in large part to Japan's largest operator, NTT Docomo finally carrying Apple handsets. As for the rest of the pack, Windows Phone has picked up significant market share in every region over last year and is even the number two smartphone OS in Italy. That's mostly at the expense of Blackberry, which now holds a miniscule 0.4 percent of the US market and has declined precipitously everywhere else -- to the point that its not a given that it'll appear on any charts soon.