World’s Top Three Phone Makers: Nokia, Samsung and Apple
IDC’S latest mobile rankings are out today, and they show a strong, continued shift in the industry. In the fourth quarter of 2011, the world’s top five handset manufacturers were Nokia, Samsung, Apple, LG and ZTE — in that order.
Nokia shipped 113.5 million units during the quarter, down from 123.7 million during the same quarter a year earlier, according to IDC. Meanwhile, Samsung shipped 97.6 million, up from 80.7 million a year ago.
That’s a nice jump, but nowhere near as impressive as the one charted by Apple, which shipped 37 million iPhones during the quarter — up from 16.2 million during the same quarter a year earlier — for a more than 128 percent increase.
That spike gave Apple an 8.7 percent share of the mobile phone market in the fourth quarter. Which really is astonishing, when you think about it. Recall that when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone in 2007, he said Apple hoped to someday claim 1 percent of the overall handset market. Five years later, the company has far surpassed that humble goal, and is well on its way to claiming 10 percent.