Samsung Bests Nokia as World's Top Phone Maker

Two separate reports released today confirmed that Samsung has now struck Nokia as the world's top cell phone maker.They were at odds, however, about whether Samsung or Apple is the most popular smartphone maker.According to IHS iSuppli, Samsung shipped 92 million handsets in the first quarter while Nokia shipped 83 million. While Samsung has the whole was 13 per cent drop from the fourth quarter of last year, Nokia's total was 27 per cent drop, helping Samsung nab the top spot after 14 years of Nokia rule, according to iSuppli.Rounding out the five, according to iSuppli, it was Apple with 35 million shipments, 5 per cent decline from the previous part, LG with 14 million, and RIM with 11 million.Strategy Analytics reported similar numbers, putting Samsung at 25.4 per cent market for global handset shipments, followed by Nokia at 22.5 percent, and Apple's 9.5 percent."Five years after it captured the number two spot from Motorola, Samsung has finally become the world's largest handset vendor in volume terms," ​​Alex Spektor, associate director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement.Nokia's drop, according to Strategy Analytics executive director Neil Mawston, can be attributed to a decrease in low-end feature phone shipments, as well as the failure of the new Windows Phone-based Lumia line to compensate for the decline of Nokia's Symbian business.Who is the Winner Smartphone?On the smartphone front, however, iSuppli put Apple in the number one, while Strategy Analytics indicated Samsung.According to iSuppli, Apple has shipped 35 million smartphones in the first quarter to Samsung's 32 million. Strategy Analytics, however, said Samsung is the total was 44.5 million to Apple's 35.1 million. Nokia has landed at number three on both lists with 12 per cent of the market."With mobile phones now accounting for more than 40 per cent of Samsung's overall revenue, it is clear that the company's ongoing investments in smartphone hardware and software R & D pays off," said Wayne Lam, senior analyst for wireless communications at iSuppli. "The company not only Chasing the market shift to smartphones, but also occurring in other cell phone product categories, enabling it to capture the overall market lead."Lam said Samsung performance is all the more impressive for their next smartphone, the Galaxy S III, not yet released. We expect unveiled in May 3 event in London. "This indicates a Samsung is likely to make further progress in the market in 2012," Lam said.