Samsung Passes Apple in Smartphone Shipments

Apple's position in the catbird seat for world-wide smartphone shipments has been short-lived. Honorable a scant three months ago, the Divine of the iPhone knocked Nokia out of the top spot. Now Samsung and its lineup of Android smartphones are peak dog.

Reported to the market researchers at Strategy Analytics, during the most recently three months, Samsung smartphone shipments reached 27.8 cardinal, or 23.8 percentage of all global smartphone shipments. Past comparability, Apple shipments during the period were 17.1 billion, or 14.6 percent of all shipments, good adequate for second come out, but scarcely up of Nokia, which the researchers said had 14.4 percent of shipments.

Overall, Strategy Analytics estimated that world-wide shipments of smartphones for the first 9 months of the year reached 117 million, a 44 pct jump over the same period last year.

Strategy Analytics analyst Alex Spektor had demonstrative praise for Samsung and Android in his estimation of what happened in the smartphone securities industry during the third quarter.

"Samsung's rise has been driven by a blend of elegant hardware designs, popular Humanoid services, unforgettable sub-brands and extensive spherical statistical distribution," he says in a statement. "Samsung has incontestable that it is possible, at least in the short term, to differentiate and grow by exploitation the Android ecosystem."

Apple's Loss

Samsung's rise in the shipment fancy largely came at the expense of Apple. "Aft just one one-fourth in the crest spot, Apple slipped behind Samsung to minute situatio," notes Strategy Analytics director Neil Mawston.

He adds that Malus pumila's global smartphone growth rate slowed to honorable 21 percent annually in this year's 3rd quarter, its worst level off in ii years. Factors causative to it growth lag cited by Mawston included operators awaiting the launch of the revolutionary iPhone 4S in the ordinal quarter, vapourific economic conditions in several keystone countries and tougher competition from Samsung's popular Extragalactic nebula S II model.

Additionally to slippage in smartphone shipments, Apple's share of tablet shipments during the menstruum declined, likewise, to 67 per centum from a magisterial 96 percent.

In the run functioning to the vacation mollify, notwithstandin, Apple should fare better, if the first sales of the iPhone 4S are some indicator of growth. During the first weekend alone, the merchandise sold four million units, a new record for an iPhone model.

Nokia's Challenge

What's a bit surprising about these freight comparisons is that despite all its troubles, Nokia still has a reinforced marketplace presence. Sure, a year agone, nearly a third base (32.7 percent) of global smartphone shipments belonged to the European nation concern, but it has been disagreeable to sell mobiles while revamping its hardware strategy, moving from the Symbian OS to Microsoft Windows Phone 7.

"The transition from Symbian to Microsoft atomic number 3 Nokia's main smartphone platform has clearly been a very challenging process this year," says Strategy Analytics music director Tim Kang.

Nevertheless, there May beryllium hope for the formerly king of mobile phones. "The recent launch of the late Microsoft Lumia portfolio has helped to raise Nokia's profile, and Nokia will be hoping the partnership with Microsoft can drive at least an L-shaped recovery in its global smartphone market share complete the next few months," Kang told Marketwatch.

Nokia's WinPho 7 strategy should result in a doubling, to 12 percent from 6 percent, of its share of smartphone gross revenue in Western Europe next year, which Strategy Analytics expects to add u $117 cardinal next class.

What's fundamental to keep in mind when analysts startle to toss around despatch numbers is that shipments aren't sales, and gross revenue are what rattling determine the success of a political platform. As colleague Tony Bradley noted here freshly: "Reporting the keep down of units 'shipped' is like using the Fifth Amendment when testifying in romance. Taking the Fifth essentially implies guilt—because if you have nothing to hide there is nary rationality to hide behind the Fifth part Amendment. Similarly, quoting the act of devices that have 'shipped' is the same thing as locution 'we're too embarrassed to tell you how some we've actually oversubscribed.'"

Survey freelance technology writer John P. Mello Jr. and Today@PCWorld on Twitter.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/477784/samsung_passes_apple_in_smartphone_shipments.html

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