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Apple leads smartphone race in Q4, but Samsung still on top

by Steven Williamson on 7 February 2012, 15:04

Tags: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Samsung (005935.KS)

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Sales of smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2011 have hit record levels with iPhone maker Apple leading the pack, but Samsung still ahead based on overall figures for the year.

According to data from market intelligence firm IDC, the smartphone market grew by 54.7 percent year-on-year with 157.8m units shipped in the last quarter. The iPhone 4S accounted for 37 million of those units with the California-based company achieving an overall 43 percent share of the global market across its range of handsets.

“Attracted by a faster processor, improved camera and the Siri speech-driven agent, most iPhone buyers paid a premium for the iPhone 4S, making it the top-selling handset in Q4,” Ross Rubin, executive director, Connected Intelligence for The NPD Group, said in a statement.



In the top five list of best-selling smartphones for the fourth quarter, Apple took the top three positions with its Apple iPhone 4S, Apple iPhone 4 and Apple iPhone 3GS. The Samsung GALAXY S II and the Samsung GALAXY S 4G were placed fourth and fifth respectively.

HTC did well in the fourth quarter too with record growth from 8.7 million units to 10.2 million year-on-year, while Nokia saw sales of its handsets slip from 28.1 million to 19.6 million. RIM, who is planning a new strategy in the smartphone market in 2012 with the release of the touchscreen-enabled BlackBerry London, saw sales rise from 8.7 million to 10.2 million.

Looking at the overall yearly figure, Samsung came out on top selling 94 million units out of a global total of 491 million, accounting for 19.1 percent of the total market. Apple was slightly behind with 93.2 million units shipped (19 percent,) with Nokia claiming 15.6 percent and RIM 10.4 percent of the global market.



A graph showing how the operating systems are shared between smartphone owners reveals that Apple's iOS just about has the lead over Android, accounting for 48 percent of the overall market compared to Android's 43 percent for the quarter. However, 57 percent of new smartphone owners in the last quarter opted for an Android phone. That share is likely to tip in the favour of Android in 2012 as a slew of new tablets powered by Google’s operating platform hit the market.


HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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Posted by Hicks12 - Tue 07 Feb 2012 15:32
Love how it shows that loads buy the iphones… considering Samsung sell phones at like every £100 mark they should have been further than apple, the fun fact is that the amount of people complaining “ i got not money” “the times are to hard!” etc, seems majority of them have apple iphones which normally on contract cost over £30 a month… maybe they would all have more disposable income if they stuck with the £15 month stuff we used to have!

(Mainly my experience, alot of friends complain lack of funds yet can scrape together an iphone…)
Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH - Tue 07 Feb 2012 15:37
The iPhone 3GS is the third best selling smartphone! I bet its happy town and champagne corks popping time in Apple HQ just even for that metric alone!! :D

Hicks12
Love how it shows that loads buy the iphones… considering Samsung sell phones at like every £100 mark they should have been further than apple, the fun fact is that the amount of people complaining “ i got not money” “the times are to hard!” etc, seems majority of them have apple iphones which normally on contract cost over £30 a month… maybe they would all have more disposable income if they stuck with the £15 month stuff we used to have!

(Mainly my experience, alot of friends complain lack of funds yet can scrape together an iphone…)

This is why the Apple iTV will do very well. On one hand there are those which have the dosh and can easily afford it,and then there will be a load of people who can barely afford a cheaper £300 set and will buy the Apple set on installments lasting a few years(including interest). TBH,it affects many products(its not an Apple exclusive in this regard) where people will get themselves trapped into longterm debt so they can have them immediately.
Posted by crossy - Tue 07 Feb 2012 15:48
Hicks12
Love how it shows that loads buy the iphones… considering Samsung sell phones at like every £100 mark they should have been further than apple, the fun fact is that the amount of people complaining “ i got not money” “the times are to hard!” etc, seems majority of them have apple iphones which normally on contract cost over £30 a month… maybe they would all have more disposable income if they stuck with the £15 month stuff we used to have!
Ah, but to your dedicated iFan “this year's model” is an essential purchase. I remember seeing some US-based Jonah Hill look-alike (proudly?) proclaiming on the news last year that he'd cancelled holiday's etc just so he could stand in the queue for his slice of iMagic. :wallbash:

Trouble with the £15/month mark is that the smartphones at that level tend to either be obsolete or the tiny screened “budget” models. An acquaintance of mine kind of summed it up “for £40 a month you get this months model; £30 gets you this years model; £20/month and it's last years; and a tenner a month is any old crap they can't shift”.
In the top five list of best-selling smartphones for the fourth quarter, Apple took the top three positions with its Apple iPhone 4S, Apple iPhone 4 and Apple iPhone 3GS. The Samsung GALAXY S II and the Samsung GALAXY S 4G were placed fourth and fifth respectively.
Erm, is the SGS 4G sold in the EU? If not, then surely this is an indicator that the US market has (unfairly?) skewed this survey? Just curious, since like Hicks12, I would have expect Samsung to have had a stronger showing.
Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH - Tue 07 Feb 2012 15:52
crossy
Trouble with the £15/month mark is that the smartphones at that level tend to either be obsolete or the tiny screened “budget” models.

In Q2 to Q3 2011 you could get phones such as the Motorola Defy for that sort of budget. It had a 854X480 IPS screen,512MB RAM,800MHZ A8 based CPU,SGX530 GPU,2GB onboard storage,microSD card slot and was waterproof. It also had a 5MP camera.
Posted by Hicks12 - Tue 07 Feb 2012 15:54
Indeed crossy, new years ifad :D.

With the £x a month, generally it is i guess which is a shame :(, me personally i am paying £17 for an optimus 2x since june (a month or two old) and with custom roms it makes it better than the sgs2 ime :D. Being a bit technical helps loads when making a smartphone purchase now and the key part is that people seem to be forgetting about the haggling, i managed to get phones4u(instore) to beat the £18 a month from another company, i included quidco to get down to that price aswell (like £80 i think, rest discount was redemption), phones4u matched it including quidco and then some :D.

All about haggling the crap out of them :P.

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