By: Aseem Gaurav on February 7, 2012
Cupertino, California-based Apple has regained the lead in global smartphone shipments from Samsung Electronics last quarter after starting sales of the latest version of the iPhone, the data from research firm IDC suggested.
Apple shipped 37 million smartphones in the three months ended December 31, giving it a worldwide market share of 23.9 per cent, much higher than 15.9 percent share recorded a year earlier. In the same period, South Korean handset maker reported shipments of 36.5 million units.
Apple took the lead in the smartphone market in the fourth quarter due to the introduction of iPhone 4S in October, IDC said. But despite coming at the second spot, Samsung reported the highest (275 per cent growth) among all the top five vendors. One major reason for the Korean handset maker’s high marketshare was due to its expansion of Galaxy range of phones, with high-end handsets including the Galaxy S II and the Nexus, and more mass-market products, such as the Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Y.
But, in the same breath, Apple’s growth of 128 per cent on year-on-year basis, was nothing short of impressive.
On the other hand, both Nokia and Research In Motion saw their market shares drop for the quarter. Finnish mobile phone maker, Nokia, reported the highest year-over-year decrease among the top vendors, seeing a drop of 12.4 per cent from 27.6 per cent. That was largely due to the falling demand for its Symbian phones, but its smartphone strategy took another step forward with the release of new Lumia Windows Phone.
The troubled Canadian smartphone maker Research in Motion RIM had its share of ups and downs. Overall, it was a mixed bag for the company with its new BB OS 7-powered BlackBerry smartphones reaching additional markets.
Further, HTC saw its market share dip to 6.5 per cent from 8.5 per cent a year ago, though its shipments inched up to 10.2 million.
Overall, IDC figures suggest that the smartphone posted a healthy growth of 61.3 per cent between 2010 and 2012.
