Mobile manufacturers are not only battling it out in the courts, but trading punches every quarter in the race for smartphone dominance. Research firm Strategy Analytics has released stats based on Q4 reports that shows Apple has become – once again – the world’s number one smartphone manufacturer, thus overtaking Samsung. Overall, the quarter saw a whopping 54% increase from 2010 to hit 155 million smartphone shipments. The top 3 in Q4 were Apple with 37 million iPhones shipped, followed by Samsung with 36.5 million, then Nokia with 77.3 million. Other manufacturers like LG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and RIM make up the “others” with 220.8 smartphones shipped in Q4.
However, there’s a more dramatic number that shows the yearly results. Samsung is king of the smartphone shipments with 19.9% market share, up from 8% in 2010. Apple takes second spot 19%, up from 15.9% in 2010. As expected, Nokia was hit hard this year and claimed 3rd spot for smartphone shipments with 15.8%, down from 28.1% in 2010.
Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said “While Apple took the top spot in smartphones on a quarterly basis, Samsung became the market leader in annual terms for the first time with 20 percent global share during 2011. With global smartphone shipments nearing half a billion units in 2011, Samsung is now well positioned alongside Apple in a two-horse race at the forefront of one of the world’s largest and most valuable consumer electronics markets.”
Not sure how Nokia would feel about the “two-horse race”, even Apple stated during their conference call the other day Apple’s Tim Cook stated that “There’s a horse in Redmond that always runs”. If 2011 saw an increase of 54%, it’ll be fascinating to see what the numbers 2012 will be.
Source: Strategy Analytics
