Samsung trounces its smart-phone competition in ’12

LITTLE ROCK — Samsung’s lead over Apple in smart-phone manufacturing increased sharply in 2012, research firm IHS reported this month, as the South Korean company took the lead in overall cell phone manufacturing for the first time.

In its preliminary report on cell-phone manufacturing in 2012, the firm reported that Samsung shipped 28 percent of the world’s smart phones this year, while Apple accounted for 20 percent; in 2011, the margin was much closer, as Samsung accounted for 20 percent of the market and Apple owned 19 percent.

Samsung also displaced Nokia as the top cell-phone manufacturer in the world. The Finnish manufacturer fell from the top spot for the first time since 1998, IHS reported. Nokia had held on to the top spot because of its basic phones, which do not feature the touch screen and advanced uses of a smart phone; however, smart-phones’ continued growth finally pushed Nokia.

Smart-phone shipments increased by 35.5 percent from 2011 to 2012, IHS reported, while overall cell-phone shipments increased only 1 percent. IHS predicts that smart phones will account for 56 percent of all cell phones shipped in 2013, which would be the first time smart phones were a majority of the mobile-phone market.

“The competitive reality of the cell phone market in 2012 was ‘live by the smart phone; die by the smart phone,’” Wayne Lam, senior analyst for wireless communications at IHS, said in a statement. “Smart phones represent the fastest-growing segment of the cell phone market - and will account for nearly half of all wireless handset shipments for all of 2012. Samsung’s successes and Nokia’s struggles in the cell phone market this year were determined entirely by the two companies’ divergent fortunes in the smart phone sector.”

Apple is third in the overall cell-phone category, accounting for 10 percent of shipments, while Samsung claimed 29 percent and Nokia 24 percent.

Samsung and Apple accounted for nearly 50 percent of the smart phones shipped in 2012, as other companies suffered against the two giants.