Samsung shipped more smartphones in North America than Apple last quarter

Samsung became the top smartphone vendor in North America in Q2 2017. The data shows that it shipped 14 million smartphones and accounted for 33.3 percent of the North American smartphone market.

This is the first time that Samsung has become the No.1 smartphone vendor in North America since the second quarter of last year. It's also the first time that Samsung has accounted for more than 30 percent of the market since 2014.

Apple saw an 8.7 percentage point decline quarter-over-quarter as it shipped 10.1 million units in Q2 2017 and accounted for 24 percent of the market.

Samsung was able to outperform Apple in this quarter due to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. The new flagship smartphones have performed spectacularly in the market and have contributed a great deal to Samsung's success in Q2 2017.

Apple saw sluggish sales as most prospective iPhone customers decided to hold off on new purchases in anticipation of the iPhone 8 that's due to arrive in a couple of months. Apple is likely going to see an uptick in sales by the fourth quarter of this year when the iPhone 8 has been released.