Samsung surpasses Apple atop smartphone peak

Monday, October 31, 2011

The smartphone craze may have started with the original Apple iPhone, but Samsung has officially surpassed the company as the top manufacturer for the third quarter.

According to a recent study conducted by Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments increased 44 percent and reached a record 117 million units. Of those shipped, nearly 28 million were Samsung, which managed to grow from 9.3 percent of the market to nearly 24 percent in the past year.

Apple managed to sell more of its iPhones in comparison to last year's third quarter numbers, but declined in market share from 17.4 percent to 14.6 percent.

"We believe Apple’s growth during the third quarter was affected by consumers and operators awaiting the launch of the new iPhone 4S in the fourth quarter, volatile economic conditions in several key countries and tougher competition from Samsung’s popular Galaxy S2 model," said Strategy Analytics director Neil Mawston.

With the influx of smartphones, tablets and other products, Forrester Research encourages organizations to adopt a mobile device management policy to support different levels of the devices, Network World reported.