The official results are in: Apple has taken the crown as the world's largest smartphone maker for raw shipments, surpassing both Nokia and Samsung to capture 20.3 percent of all smartphone shipments worldwide. But, as CEO Steve Jobs might note, there's one more thing: Apple's also taken the crown for worldwide smartphone market share, clocking in at 18.5 percent for the second quarter of 2011.
Just how bad are the losses for Nokia? The company recorded a market share of 38.1 percent during the same time period last year. That's since shrunk to 15.2 percent, putting the handset producer in a solid third place behind Samsung's 17.5 percent smartphone market share. The loss ends Nokia's 15-year reign as the world's top smartphone vendor, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. And it's also done a number on Nokia's stock price – down 47 percent this year alone as the company struggles to compete against both iOS and Android.
Although Samsung took second in total smartphone shipments for the second quarter of 2011, at 19.2 percent, the company actually recorded a higher year-to-year growth in smartphone shipments than even mighty Apple. Year-to-year shipment growth for Apple jumped from 8.4 percent to 11.9 percent between Q2 2010 and Q2 2011. Samsung, however, rocketed from 3.1 percent of all worldwide smartphone shipments to 16.1 percent – thanks, in part, to healthy sales of the company's Galaxy S2 smartphone.
The same growth spike can be seen on Samsung's global market share as well. First-place Apple may have jumped from 13.5 percent to 18.5 percent to capture the lead, but Samsung rose from a scant five percent to 17.5 percent over a single year's worth of time.
"Samsung is breathing down Nokia's neck," said Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics. "An unexciting touch-phone portfolio, inventory correction, wavering demand for the Symbian platform and limited presence in the huge U.S. market continued to weigh on Nokia's near-term performance."
In total, year-to-year smartphone shipments worldwide grew 76 percent to a total of 110 million units: Apple shipped 20.3 million, Samsung shipped 19.2 million, and Nokia shipped 16.7 million.
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