Apple Passes Samsung As Top Smartphone Vendor In 4Q - Gartner
February 15 2012 - 4:09AM
Dow Jones News
Apple Inc. (AAPL) overtook Samsung Electronics Co.'s (005930.SE)
position as the world's top vendor of smartphones in the fourth
quarter, industry research firm Gartner said Wednesday.
Apple sold 35.46 million smartphones in the three months to Dec.
31 and had a market share at 23.8%, up from 15.8% the year before,
Gartner said. Samsung, with its popular Galaxy smartphone line-up,
sold 34 million smartphones in the quarter.
"The quarter saw Samsung and Apple cement their positions
further at the top of the market as their brands and new products
clearly stood out," Gartner said.
Total smartphone sales in the quarter totaled 149 million units,
up 47.3% from the same period 2010. Smartphones running Google
Inc.'s (GOOG) Android operating system accounted for 50.9% of all
smartphone sales, up from 30.5%.
Nokia Corp.'s (NOK) Symbian operating system continued to lose
market share, falling to 11.7% of smartphone sales from 32.3% the
previous year.
Nokia last year announced that it is phasing out its aging
Symbian platform, and adopting Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows
Phone operating system in all its new smartphones. Despite Nokia's
launch of several new Windows Phone devices, the operating system
remains small, with 1.9% market share in the fourth quarter.
Gartner, which counts sales of mobile handsets to end users,
said total mobile device sales was 476.5 million units in the
fourth quarter, a 5.4% increase from the same quarter in 2010.
Nokia retained its position as the world's largest phone maker,
with a 23.4% share of the total mobile device market, down from
27.1% the same quarter a year ago. However, Samsung is closing in
on the Finnish company and grabbed 19.4% of the mobile market, up
from 17.5% in the same quarter 2010.
Fueled by strong sales of iPhones, Apple became third-largest
mobile phone vendor in the world in the fourth quarter, overtaking
South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. (066570.SE).
Gartner noted that LG, Sony Ericsson (SNE, ERIC), Motorola
Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) and Research In Motion Ltd.'s (RIMM)
recorded disappointing results, as the companies struggled to
improve volumes significantly.
"These vendors were also exposed to a much stronger threat from
the midrange and low end of the smartphone market as ZTE Corp.
(0763.HK) and Huawei Technologies Co. continued to gain share
during the quarter," Gartner said.
Gartner expects the overall mobile device market to grow by
about 7% in 2012, while smartphone growth is expected to slow to
around 39%.
-By Sven Grundberg, Dow Jones Newswires; +46-8-5451-3098;
sven.grundberg@dowjones.com
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