For years, Nokia has held onto the world"s biggest mobile phone maker position, even as other companies have tried to take that accomplishment away. This week, a new report from Strategy Analytics claims that Nokia has finally been knocked down to the number two position by none other than Samsung.
According to the report, for the first quarter of 2012, Samsung shipped 93.5 million mobile phones worldwide, capturing 25 percent of the total market. Samsung had just 68.9 million handsets shipped at the same time a year ago.
Nokia shipped 82.7 million mobile phones in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 108.5 million units shipped at the same time a year ago. Nokia was the number one maker of mobile phones from 1998 to 2011. The report states:
Volumes were squeezed at both ends, as low-end feature phone shipments in emerging markets stalled and high-end Microsoft Lumia smartphones were unable to offset the rapid decline of Nokia’s legacy Symbian business.
Apple came in third in the first quarter of 2012, shipping 35.1 million units of its iPhone worldwide compared to 18.6 million units for the same time period a year ago. The report predicts that while iPhone sales will continue to rise, they may face some head winds when Samsung launches the Galaxy S III later this year.
Overall, the study claims that 368 million mobile phones were shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2012, a rise of just three percent compared to the same period a year ago.