Apple Surpasses LG as World's Third-Largest Phone Maker

A study from the International
Data Corporation says Apple now
trails Nokia and Samsung.
Apple is now the world’s third-largest phone
maker by shipments and market share,
according to a study from the International
Data Corporation (IDC). Only behind Nokia
and Samsung, Apple took the third spot
globally from LG, up from the fifth spot last
quarter.
The iPhone 4S propelled Apple to third place
in the fourth quarter of 2011, ahead of LG
and Chinese vendor ZTE, with particularly
strong sales in the U.S. and Japan, IDC said.
Apple reported last month that it sold 37
million iPhones during the holiday quarter, a
record for the company. Sales were up 128
percent from 2010. Apple’s iPad is also the
leader of the tablet market.
“The introduction of high-growth products
such as the iPhone 4S, which shipped in the
fourth quarter, bolstered smartphone
growth,” explained Kevin Restivo, senior
research analyst with IDC. “Yet overall
market growth fell to its lowest point since
3Q09 when the global economic recession
was in full bloom,” he added.
Nokia remains the leader in IDC’s rankings
for total mobile phone shipments, mainly
because of broad distribution around the
world and manufacturing capabilities,
shipping more than 113 million phones in
the fourth quarter alone. The study notes
the feature phone market declined faster
than anticipated, dragging market growth
down to its lowest point in over two years.
However, the worldwide mobile phone
market grew 6.1 percent year over year, IDC
said.
Samsung continued to hold the second spot
in 2011, with record units shipped in a
single quarter (97 million in the fourth
quarter) and more than 300 million
throughout the year. Samsung’s growth was
led by smartphone sales, particularly the
high-end Galaxy range (SII, Note, Nexus) and
less expensive models such as the Galaxy
Ace. LG’s shipments declined for the third
consecutive quarter because of “aging
feature phones and stalled smartphone
volumes,” the IDC research found.
IDC’s figures include smartphones and
feature phones. Looking at smartphone
figures alone, a study last week found Apple
was the number one smartphone vendor
worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2011.
However, on a yearlong basis, Strategy
Analytics said Samsung had close to 20
percent share for the year, in comparison to
Apple's 19 percent share.