Samsung leading the world in phone sales, overall the industry slowed down 2%

posted by Victor H.

May 16, 2012, 6:28 AM

Samsung leading the world in phone sales, overall the industry slowed down 2%

2012 brought us the biggest change the mobile industry has seen in decades - Nokia tumbled from its 14-year-long rule as the world’s biggest phone maker and gave up its place to Samsung. The Korean company is now the largest handset manufacturer with nearly 86.6 million phones sold, according to researchers from Gartner. Samsung is also the world’s biggest smartphone maker, bigger than Apple, while Nokia fell to a mere third in smartphones.

Overall, the industry slowed down in the first three months of 2012 with total sales of 419.1 million handsets, a 2% decline over the same period last year. It should be noted though that the number of smartphones continues to grow, and these are more expensive devices after all.

The decline mainly came from Asia and the Pacific region, one area where Nokia also declined hugely. Interestingly, the Chinese manufacturing continue growing their sales quickly and now ZTE has cemented its fourth place globally, and Huawei is rising to soon rival LG for the fifth spot.

source: Gartner

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20 Comments

15. Suts_97

Posts: 130; Member since: May 05, 2012

Don't get it wrong, but I guess plastic is sometimes better than glass...

posted on May 16, 2012, 1:22 PM 3

16. gwuhua1984

Posts: 1237; Member since: Mar 06, 2012

Yeah, cause plastic wouldn't shatter like glass, but for optimistic people they could refer their glass shattered device as vintage.

posted on May 16, 2012, 1:36 PM 3

13. gallitoking

Posts: 4721; Member since: May 17, 2011

I feel for those that got stuck with Samsung low end devices...

posted on May 16, 2012, 11:35 AM 2

20. cepcamba

Posts: 717; Member since: Feb 27, 2012

Well, according to another article here in PA, the most popular android device is the S2. Not very low-end in my opinion.

posted on May 16, 2012, 6:19 PM 2

9. -box-

Posts: 3991; Member since: Jan 04, 2012

That's pretty close though, a difference of 3 million handsets. Granted, that's a lot, but not more than a few strategic moves could resolve or decrease the gap

posted on May 16, 2012, 8:37 AM 1

7. JSern

Posts: 282; Member since: May 22, 2011

Eww, plastic

posted on May 16, 2012, 7:23 AM 2

10. SleepingOz unregistered

like the Lumia series.. Yeahhh, ewww plastic!

posted on May 16, 2012, 10:19 AM 4

5. ivanko34

Posts: 617; Member since: Sep 04, 2011

Sad for Nokia

posted on May 16, 2012, 6:58 AM 3

6. dickwyn

Posts: 621; Member since: May 07, 2012

we have to wait till windows 8 to come out before the market decides fate of some companies

posted on May 16, 2012, 7:13 AM 4

4. remixfa

Posts: 14605; Member since: Dec 19, 2008

yet another source that pegs samsung as the worlds largest smartphone maker. When are you going to just give it up and ban yourself, taco?

posted on May 16, 2012, 6:41 AM 14

8. PhoneArenaUser

Posts: 5498; Member since: Aug 05, 2011

True.

posted on May 16, 2012, 8:14 AM 4

11. gwuhua1984

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!"

posted on May 16, 2012, 10:35 AM 2

12. gallitoking

but the bet was for Q1. not who was the largest phone maker.. ok remix. so chill. just accept defeat

posted on May 16, 2012, 11:31 AM 1

14. androiddownsouth

Posts: 598; Member since: May 02, 2012

No matter what numbers you look at in that report, I'm no math wizard, but Samsung's numbers are bigger than Apple's in every category. So, just how did remix lose? I haven't been posting here until recently, but I have been reading threads for quite some time. Samsung beat Apple. Very simple to see, at least for people that can read numbers.......

posted on May 16, 2012, 12:17 PM 5

17. remixfa

Gallito, did you go to Taco's school of reading? the information provided in this article is FROM Q1 2012. Its just recompiling everyone's quarter numbers. And if you read the article, it again says that Samsung beat Apple in pure smartphone sales in Q1. " Samsung is also the world’s biggest smartphone maker, bigger than Apple, while Nokia fell to a mere third in smartphones."

posted on May 16, 2012, 1:37 PM 2

18. gallitoking

samsung saturated the market with mostly low end devices... but still doesnt dominate in the US.. Samsung may be the biggest smartphone maker.. but seller... thats still Apple...