Today, research firm IDC published its Q1 2012 report of top mobile phone and smartphone shipments worldwide. While Apple was able to post impressive growth with a high of 8.8-percent of the total mobile phone market (up from 4.6-percent a year ago) and 24.2-percent of the global smartphone market (up from 18.3-percent), Samsung was able overtake Apple for the top spot with a year-over-year change of 267 percent and 29.1-percent of the total smartphone market. Samsung also took the top spot of global mobile phone marketshare from Nokia for the first time since 2004.
In terms of shipments among smartphone vendors, Apple took the second spot behind Samsung up from 18.6 million units in Q1 2011 to 35.1 million in Q1 2012. Apple was only behind Samsung with 42.2 million units shipped, up from just 11.5 million a year ago.
The company does not publicly release shipments from Samsung, and IDC’s number of 42.2 million smartphones shipped during Q1 is significantly more than the 32 million estimated by IHS iSuppli just days ago. If IHS’s estimate were correct, it would put Samsung much closer to the 35.1 million devices Apple confirmed it shipped sold during the quarter.
IDC attributed Apple’s growth largely to the iPhone becoming available on additional carriers and retailers across the globe, “as well as sustained end-user demand among both consumers and enterprise users.” Samsung’s growth, on the other hand, was the “continued expansion of its Galaxy portfolio,” although there is no solid data on how exactly IDC obtained Samsung’s shipment numbers.
IDC Senior Research Analyst Ramon Llamas talked about today’s report:
Cross-posted on 9to5Google.com
- IDC says Samsung was 2011′s top Smartphone vendor, here are the numbers (9to5google.com)
- IDC says Apple finished 2011 on top of the Smartphone world, here are the numbers (9to5mac.com)
