Samsung now World's Largest Phone Manufacturer

Nokia was the largest cellphone manufacturer in the world for 14 years. But the company now been dethroned by Samsung. My how the mighty have fallen.

Samsung has managed to increase the number of cellphones it sold to 93.5 million in the first quarter. That is 36% more than they sold last year, and higher than Nokia’s 82.7 million sold. Of course the biggest news might be that Nokia managed to sell 82.7 million despite seemingly no one buying their hardware. This data comes courtesy of research firm Strategy Analytics.

Said Strategy Analytics’ Tom Kang in an interview with Bloomberg:

“Last year Samsung became No. 1 in Europe while Nokia retained the No. 1 position in most emerging markets. In the first quarter, we expect Samsung took a lot of market share from Nokia in Asia. China and India were the two biggest markets where Samsung gained.”

That said, this might not be the year that Samsung overtakes Nokia. Explains Kang:

“Samsung will probably still be No. 1 in the second quarter, but the full year will be a close call because the third and fourth quarters are traditionally Nokia’s best.”

Samsung is also now the largest vendor of smartphones in the world, successfully managing to win that title from Apple. The company shipped 44.5 million smartphones, while Cupertino shipped 35.1 million. That gives them a marketshare of 31% and 24%, respectively. Nokia, meanwhile, only managed to ship 11.9 million smartphones. Interestingly, Windows Phone 7 only accounted for 2 million of those.

Bloomberg Photo by : Wikipedia