A few weeks back we reported that Apple has overtook Nokia in a race to become the world’s top smartphone manufacturer. Well, Apple’s reign at the top didn’t last long as according to a report published today, Samsung is now the world’s largest smartphone vendor(in terms of shipments — not the sales).
In Q3 2011, Apple Inc. managed to ship only 17.1 million smartphones, comprising 14.6% of the market, whereas Samsung shipped a staggering 27.8 million smartphones which is around 23.8% of the market — pushing the California based company to the second spot. Nokia in the meantime remained in third place behind Samsung and Apple.
According to The Wall Street Journal:
Samsung Electronics Co. shipped more than 20 million smartphones in the quarter ended Sept. 30, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday, beating market leader Apple Inc. as well as Nokia Corp., the world’s biggest cellphone maker by volume.
The South Korean company benefited from a push into the high end; demand is robust for phones that consumers can use to watch videos, download movies and send email. The company is also taking advantage of the popularity of Google Inc.’s Android operating system, while also stepping up production in Europe of phones using its own software and software from Microsoft Corp.
The next target for Samsung is to surpass Apple in terms of sales, would they be able to achieve this? It seems very realistic to us.
Samsung has been the leader from the past couple of years in terms of Smartphone units sold, but its Market Share is constantly dropping. Other prominent players in the Smartphone Market include Apple (consistent share), Huawei (trending upwards), Lenovo and Xiaomi.