Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung smashed the smartphone shipment record in the third quarter of 2012, with 57 million handsets shipped worldwide. In the process, it captured a 35 percent global share of the market, cementing its position as the number one smartphone manufacturer ahead of Apple.
Buoyed by huge sales of its flagship Galaxy S III device, it’s been a very good past couple of months for Samsung. Despite losing out in the well-documented court case fought against Apple in San Jose, its product line has continued to grow from strength to strength and with a very SII-esque incarnation set to arrive for Windows Phone 8 in the form of the ATIV S GT, it appears the company’s position can only get stronger.
The stats were calculated by numbers firm Strategic Analytics through its latest report. According to the company’s findings, around 162 million handsets were shipped in Q3 of 2012, and Samsung’s 57 million, or 35 percent, total share was "the largest number of units ever shipped by a smartphone vendor in a single quarter," according to Strategy Analytics’ Executive Director Neil Mawston.
As well as the Galaxy S III, which unquestionably originates most popular line of Android smartphone, other devices such as the "phablet" Galaxy Note have seen Samsung streak ahead of the competition. Apple sat in second place on Strategy Analytics’ charts, but with a comparatively meagre 17 percent, it is the South Korean LCD specialist that leads the way.
It’s worth pointing out that Apple’s 26.9 million smartphones shipped worldwide is an increase on the 14 percent it commanded for the same period of last year, so while progress may be slow, it’s progress nonetheless. Additionally, the brand-new iPhone was only on sale for a matter of days during the third quarter, so the typically-booming Q4 report may reflect Apple as an even stronger candidate against its bitter rival.
Apple did fare better than many other big-name vendors. Nokia slipped into the “Others” category which houses the likes of BlackBerry, and although the group accounts for a total of 48 percent, there are a lot of different brands within that figure.
Collectively, Apple and Samsung accounted for one half of all smartphones shipped worldwide, and given that this number was a third last year, the dominance of both companies is clear for all to see.
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