Samsung tops Apple in global mobile phone shipments

Samsung's smartphone shipments soared to easily grab the lion's share of the global market, according to a market researcher. Another market researcher also put Samsung at number one in the overall mobile phone market.

The South Korean electronics giant's share went from 12.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2011 to a whopping 30.6 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to Strategy Analytics (see chart below).

Apple's growth isn't too shabby, either; it jumped from an 18.1 per cent share last year (which at the time was larger than Samsung's) to 24.1 per cent.

Overall global smartphone shipments grew 41 per cent annually to reach 145 million units in the first quarter of 2012. More than half of that was Samsung and Apple combined.

"Samsung and Apple are outcompeting most of their major rivals, and the smartphone market is at risk of becoming a two-horse race," Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement.

Samsung's growth is coming from its Galaxy models, among other products. "Samsung's global smartphone shipments rose 253 per cent annually ... as demand surged for its popular Galaxy models such as the Note, S2 and Y," Strategy Analytics said.

The loser in all of this is Nokia; its share dropped like a rock, from 23.5 per cent in the first quarter of last year to 8.2 per cent this year.

"This is Nokia's lowest market-share level in the smartphone category since 2002," Tom Kang, director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement. "Nokia's new Microsoft Lumia portfolio has recently gotten off to an encouraging start in the critical United States market, but shipments there are not yet large enough to offset the firm's tumbling Symbian volumes in the rest of the world."

iSuppli puts Apple at number one in smartphones, but Samsung number one in the larger mobile phone market

A second market research firm, IHS iSuppli, ranks Apple number one in the smartphone market, while placing Samsung in the number-one spot for mobile phones (see charts below).

In the "smartphone segment of the cell phone market", iSuppli shows Apple shipping 35 million units in the first quarter, while Samsung shipped 32 million.

"Apple remained in the same position in smartphones that it captured in the fourth quarter of 2011 — at number one — while Samsung held on to second place," iSuppli said.

That said, iSuppli ranks Samsung number one overall in the mobile phone market, with 92 million mobile phones shipped in the first quarter, compared to Nokia's 83 million.

Via CNET