Samsung sustains lead over Apple, Nokia

Samsung continues to lead mobile phone sales over rivals Apple and Nokia in the second quarter even as sales of mobile phones declined by 2.3 per cent globally to 419 million units. Samsung sales were up by 29.5 per cent from the second quarter of 2011.

Demand for the new Galaxy S3 was particularly robust, exceeding Samsung's own expectations, with a reported 10 million units reached in the two months after its release. Record sales of Galaxy smart phones drove Samsung’s growth. Smartphones now account for 50.4 per cent of all its mobile devices, or 45.6 million units, according to research firm Gartner, Inc.

Consumer demand for the Apple iPhone weakened as sales fell 12.6 per cent from the first quarter of 2012. But it grew 47.4 per cent year on year. Depending on the exact launch date of the new iPhone, Apple might experience another weaker-than-usual quarter in the third quarter of 2012.

Nokia sales down

Nokia's sales declined 14.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2012. Nokia is battling fiercely with white-box and emerging device manufacturers to defend its feature phones sales. It succeeded, to an extent, in winning feature phone market share as its sales grew quarter-on-quarter. While posting sequential growth in that market, Nokia's Lumia devices continue the struggle for mindspace as a replacement for Android, Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, said.

Overall market

Globally, smartphone sales accounted for 36.7 per cent of total mobile phone sales and grew by 42.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2012. Demand slowed further in the second quarter of 2012, due to the challenging economic environment and users postponing upgrades.

In the smartphone OS (operating system) market, Android extended its lead with an increase of 20.7 percentage points in market share in the second quarter. While Apple's iOS market share slightly grew year over year (0.6 per cent), it declined 3.7 percentage points quarter on quarter.

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