Last year started off with expectations Huawei would challenge Samsung for the title of world’s most prolific smartphone seller, but Apple instead took its place in threatening the Korean-giants throne.

Industry insiders on Thursday released estimates that reveal Apple is close to matching and even surpassing Samsung’s smartphone shipments during the pivotal holiday quarter.

Strategy Analytics put Apple’s iPhone shipments in the fourth quarter at 70.7 million – just in front of Samsung’s 68.8 million.

Canalys gauged the US tech giant had moved 78 million, beating Samsung’s 71 million.

(Photo by Budrul Chukrut / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

But HIS Markit researchers have flipped those figures, instead reporting Samsung at 70.7 million and Apple at 67.7 million.

Research firms are made to estimate after Apple put a halt to revealing its own iPhone figures a year ago, but Samsung still provides figures for smartphones and feature phones.

The main take away from the consensus, however, is that there is no longer any wide gap between the two global tech titans.

All three market-tracking firms revealed an estimated 56 million units shipped from Huawei in the same quarter, a respectable performance despite the heavy US sanctions that restricted the company.

(Photo by Budrul Chukrut / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)