Samsung set new worldwide smartphone shipments records during the fourth quarter of 2012 as Huawei entered the top five for the first time, according to the latest IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
Manufacturers shipped 219.4 million smartphones during the period, accounting for 45.5 percent of all mobile phone shipments – the highest percentage ever.
Samsung shipped 63.7 million (29 percent) of these, a record for a single quarter, contributing to a total of 215.8 million during 2012, itself a yearly record. IDC says that demand for its smartphones across all price-points handed it the advantage over arch-rival Apple, which only offers one range – the iPhone.
Apple has reportedly slashed component orders for the iPhone 5 due to less than anticipated demand for its flagship smartphone. This, and the continued success of the iPhone 4, has led to suggestions that Apple could be preparing to launch a cheaper iPhone to compete with Android and to target developing markets.
Huawei finished third in the table for the first time ever, thanks to its inexpensive smartphones and high-end Ascend product range, while Sony secured fourth place. Chinese manufacturer ZTE was fifth during the quarter, thanks to international diversification efforts and lower-cost smartphones in many emerging markets.
“The high-growth smartphone market, though dominated by Samsung and Apple, still presents ample opportunities for challengers,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “Vendors with unique market advantages, such as lower-cost devices, can rapidly gain market share, especially in emerging markets. A good example is Huawei, which overtook LG as a Top 5 vendor in the overall mobile phone market and passed HTC to become a Top 5 smartphone vendor.”
Nokia, HTC and RIM shipped the third, fourth and fifth most smartphones during the entire of 2012 but were absent from the top five for the fourth quarter. Nokia has reported strong sales of its Windows Phone 8-based Lumia range, however, while RIM is due to launch its first smartphones running the BlackBerry 10 operating system on Wednesday.
How much do you know about the iPhone’s rivals? Find out with our quiz!
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Cheap Chinese junk? No thanks.
Chinese terrorist junk? Doubly no thanks.
Chinese companies like Huawei have ties to terrorist groups and the Chinese communist military.
Huawei says they're privately operated, but nothing in China goes forward without the Communist state having its hands on it.
China is also the largest perpetrator of IP theft, hacking into government and corporate networks to steal technology and trade secrets. This is how China has come so far in only 5 years. This speed would be impossible if they had to develop their own IP.
The Chinese are lying, stealing cheaters. Why buy from such a nasty country?
Given China has a population of almost 1.5 BILLION people, it's hardly impressive this company came in 3rd by flooding their own domestic market with cheap junk.