IDC says 1 billion smartphones were shipped in 2013, led by Samsung's 313.9 million units

For the first time in history, more than 1 billion smartphones were shipped in a single year, according to IDC. The 1.004 billion units moved were a gain of 38.4% from the 725.3 million shipped in 2012. Smartphones represented 41.2% of all mobile phones that were in transit in 2012, rising to 55.1% last year. For the fourth quarter alone, the 284.4 million smartphones shipped compared to the 229 million in 2012, for a gain of 24.2% year-over-year.

Checking the global smartphone market for the fourth quarter, Samsung shipped 82 million phones which represented 28% of the market. Despite the gain of 22.9% in the number of units shipped, Samsung's market share actually declined from 29.1% to 28.8%. That is because the Korean company's year-over-year gain was actually slower than the whole smartphone market, which rose sharply thanks to a surge in low-priced Chinese produced Android handsets. Apple was next with 51 million iPhones shipped in the period. That gave Apple 17.9% of the smartphone market, down from the 20.9% share it owned in 2012. Huawei, Lenovo and LG rounded out the top five and the trio all gained market share in the quarter thanks to strong year-over-year growth (56.5%, 46.3% and 53.2 respectively).
 

Including all phones, Samsung shipped 112 million units in the fourth quarter which was actually a 1.4% decline from 2012. The company now has a 22.9% market share of the entire mobile phone market. Nokia was second, shipping 63.4 million handsets for a rather steep decline of 26.5% year-over-year. After Apple's 51 million handsets shipped in the three months, there is a big drop off with LG (18.5 million) and Huawei (17.9 million) next. For the entire year, Samsung shipped the most handsets with a total of 446.7 million, nearly double the 251 million shipped by Nokia.


source: IDC via TechCrunch