Research firms’ reports show Samsung is increasing its share of...
Research firms’ reports show Samsung is increasing its share of the mobile phone market and again shipped the most mobile phones during Q3. Worldwide shipments of mobile phones reached between 387.3 million and 444.5 million units in Q3, according to…
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respective reports from ABI Research (http://xrl.us/bnv7eb) and International Data Corporation (IDC). Estimates of worldwide smartphone shipments varied, according to the ABI and IDC reports, as well as ones from Strategy Analytics (http://xrl.us/bnv7eq) and Juniper Research (http://xrl.us/bnv7e6). ABI found 155.5 million smartphones shipped in Q3; Juniper found 157 million, Strategy Analytics found 161.7 million and IDC found 179.7 million (http://xrl.us/bnv7fe). While the firms’ figures varied, all four said Samsung remained the leading smartphone vendor in Q3, and saw its market share increase. Samsung’s market share climbed to 31.3 percent, from 22.7 percent the same time last year, according to IDC. No. 2 vendor Apple’s market share increased to 15 percent from 13.8 percent in 2011; No. 3 Research in Motion dropped to 4.3 percent from 9.6 percent, while No. 4 vendor ZTE’s share rose to 4.2 percent from 3.3 percent, IDC said. “Samsung looks to be running away from the pack while Apple’s new product portfolio continues to eat into its decreasing gross margins,” ABI senior analyst Michael Morgan said late Thursday in a news release. “Apple will need to ship over 94 million smartphones in Q4 if it wants to match its 2011 shipment growth of 96 percent.” Samsung and Apple combined manufactured more than half of the smartphones shipped during the quarter, up from about 33 percent a year ago, according to Strategy Analytics data. Their growth was at the expense of Nokia, Strategy Analytics senior analyst Neil Shah said Thursday in a news release. “Nokia has now slipped outside the top three global smartphone rankings for the first time in history,” Shah said. “Nokia will need to ramp up sharply its Windows Phone volumes if it wants to recapture a top-three smartphone position in the next one to two quarters.” LG also did well during the quarter, with 24 percent growth from Q2 to Q3, according to Juniper Research. “LG needs to better its smartphone line-up and rebuild its position within the second-tier smartphone segment -- in order to improve profit margins and effectively to compete against players including Huawei, Motorola and HTC,” Juniper said Friday in a news release.