Samsung soars past rivals to top the tables
THE DECLINE of Nokia’s prominence as the top mobile phone maker was emphasised yesterday in a report from the International Data Corporation, which showed that Samsung has pipped the creator of the eponymous ringtone to the coveted top spot.
Samsung shipped 93.8m mobile phones in the first quarter of this year, soaring past Nokia whose shipments dropped by almost a quarter to 82.7m.
This is the first time since the IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker was launched in 2004 that Nokia has not led in total mobile phone shipments.
The South Korean company also overtook Apple as the world’s top smartphone vendor, establishing a new market record for the number of smartphones shipped in a quarter.
While Apple increased its shipments by 89 per cent in the period to a total of 35.1m iPhones, Samsung topped the table by growing its sales 267 per cent to 42.2m smartphones.
With respective market shares of 29.1 per cent and 24.2 per cent, Samsung and Apple dominate more than half of the smartphone market.
Research in Motion reached a low not seen since 2009, with BlackBerry shipments declining by 29.7 per cent to 9.7m in the quarter.