Apple Overtakes Samsung In Q4 Smartphone Sales: Report

SEOUL (Reuters) - Apple Inc overtook Samsung Electronics Co Ltd as the world's top smartphone maker in the fourth quarter of last year, with the South Korean company selling about half a million fewer smartphones than its rival, research firm Strategy Analytics said on Friday.

Apple sold 37 million iPhones and Samsung sold 36.5 million smartphone handsets, giving each a respective 23.9 percent and 23.5 percent market share.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Chris Lewis)

Earlier on HuffPost:

At Apple's most recent earnings call, the company announced that it now has $97.6 billion in cash on hand. Here are 9 things Apple could buy with that money...

Comments

[Washington George]

06:49 AM on 01/29/2012

the Achilles heels for apple will be battery power. more features added everyday very little progress in battery power. innovation cannot keep pace if battery power does not grow. end of game for apple and the like.

[tpg639]

03:07 PM on 01/29/2012

Please quantify "little progress"? If you look historically, you would see that Apple has been able to maintain or even increase battery life with each new generation that adds features. To be frank, based on this and your other comments, you come off as someone who has no idea what they are talking about and/or is an Apple hater. I must say your ability to link Apple's commercial success and the horrors of Nazism hard to comprehend.

[Washington George]

09:45 PM on 01/29/2012

meteoric rise like apple's is connected to exploitation of labor in china. we must be ready to face the facts. quantum of exploitation may be a small fraction of nazi germany but the same fanatic dedication, waiting 48 hours for just a phone? this a matter for both social scientists as well as legal experts to study.

[BruntLIVE]

10:57 PM on 01/27/2012

This shows you the power of iPhone, Samsung have hundreds of phone versus one iphone

[Washington George]

05:39 AM on 01/29/2012

it shows the power of apple fanboism more than anything. how herd mentality works. this is a classic case of mass mania that needs to be studied. reminds me of hitler's germany. inside we are so empty and devoid of meaning we will cling to anything that gives us something to go by.

[Richard Bell]

11:07 PM on 01/29/2012

Would you please stop bringing up hitler? kthxbi

[VapeGirl]

06:53 PM on 01/27/2012

Maybe because the only way Apple can compete is by having courts stop the sales of competitive brands.

[CrimsonIdol]

11:28 PM on 01/27/2012

Some (read Samsung) wouldn't even be in the market if they didn't straight out copy the iPhone and slap their name on it.

[Huah]

03:19 PM on 01/27/2012

Go, Apple!!! Steve Jobs would be so proud of you!

[Washington George]

05:41 AM on 01/29/2012

the future of apple is at stake without steve jobs. he was the driving force for apple.

[Sundialsvc4]

03:15 PM on 01/27/2012

Yup... sounds like the high-tech marketplace is percolating along just as it should. Let the games continue!!

[KarateKid]

02:03 PM on 01/27/2012

The running argument of _idiots.

I don't care what you all use, it's no skin off my nose; I only care about what I use.

[NerdyStudent]

07:55 PM on 01/27/2012

But that's the same argument you often put forth, generally with some juvenile insult...oh wait you did, you said _idiots.

[KarateKid]

08:37 PM on 01/27/2012

That wasn't an insult. It was a compliment.

[DRaymond]

01:34 PM on 01/27/2012

It is important to understand that articles can only make comparisons between products if the companies break down their numbers. So for example Apple does not break down smartphone sales by model. So we don't know if their surge is because the 4S is selling well or people are grabbing up the Apple 3GS that AT&T gives away for free with a data plan. We don't know how much of the surge in sales is simply because Sprint and other carriers have been added. We don't know how many of Apple's surge in sales were upgrades to existing customers that had built up because Apple had not had a new product announcement in 15 months. For Samsung we don't know what percentage were Android sales vs others like WP7. We don't know the breakdown between high-end and low-end models. We don't know how many were new customers to Samsung or upgrading prior Samsung models. In other words we don't know more than we know.

[theveggiedude]

03:22 PM on 01/27/2012

Apple has 3 versions of iPhone. Sumsung has two dozen Smartphones. It's even more impressive knowing this.

[NerdyStudent]

07:55 PM on 01/27/2012

Brand loyalty is a powerful tool.

[jflorish]

06:17 PM on 01/27/2012

And this matters why?

[amajamus]

01:26 PM on 01/27/2012

a half million more phones is not a big margin . . . and this is a win for apple?

[jflorish]

06:17 PM on 01/27/2012

According to their earnings report, I would say yes.

[Pectin]

09:49 PM on 01/27/2012

"a half million more phones is not a big margin "

Yes it is.

"and this is a win for apple? "

Yup.

[amajamus]

09:54 PM on 01/27/2012

It's not a big margin when you are talking about 35 million.

[Juan Humanbeing]

01:07 PM on 01/27/2012

Apple Fanboy, "Siri, Who has the number one smartphone OS?"
Siri, "Android"

[amajamus]

01:26 PM on 01/27/2012

f/f

[King7David]

01:38 PM on 01/27/2012

Hey Juan, I got to be honest with you, I don't think that's the case. While I like the Android powered phones, they have too many hiccups and freezes for me.......

[farleft1917]

12:57 PM on 01/27/2012

We need more slaves to build our shiny toys!

[Washington George]

05:44 AM on 01/29/2012

slaves toiling to feed those maniacal supports to make stock holders rich. this needs to be looked into.

[Onutz]

09:57 AM on 01/29/2012

((slaves toiling to feed those maniacal supports to make stock holders rich. this needs to be looked into.))

Wow, speaking of looking into things, you seem to be quite an expert on slavery. Perhaps it's because your hero, ( George Washington ) actually owned quite a few himself. I sometimes wonder how many, and how they were treated? Were they beaten, lynched and burned if they tried to escape, or perhaps treated more kindly than Steve Job's slaves? Apple at least appears to be attempting to handle this crisis as much as possible, if not but to avoid the bad publicity, as opposed to Washington and Jefferson who just... oh never mind..
I suppose it doesn't really matter. Getting a bit off-topic, huh? Sorry to even bring it up. Hating Apple is what's important.
You may now return to your previously scheduled programming.

[ResearchtheFacts]

12:50 PM on 01/27/2012

There they go with the false reporting again. Just match the sales of, all, Android phone sells like it is done with phones being sold with the Windows operating system on them. The dissecting by manufacturer is only done with Android because Apple is most threatened by Android. Other operating systems like with Symbian, RIM, Windows Mobile and Bada. Consumers are wise just read the tech section of any rag who reports it like this.

[KarateKid]

02:01 PM on 01/27/2012

I thought I'd find you here, getting a load off your chest. Feel better now?

[ResearchtheFacts]

02:19 PM on 01/27/2012

Looking for me? lol Thanks i appreciate it.

[theveggiedude]

03:29 PM on 01/27/2012

Your way is also 'false' reporting because if you count all the iOS devices, you'll find that Android is far smaller!

[ResearchtheFacts]

03:53 PM on 01/27/2012

Mobile in case you can't connect the dots. Tell that to Microsoft who they don't dissect. You could even lump iphone and ipad into the mix since they do have the same OS just not laptops. Still they would not come close to the many Android devices out there that is not on laptops or desktops.

[Reality2012]

11:47 AM on 01/27/2012

The Samsung Galaxy Note is going to be a smash hit.

[PhillyKing]

12:24 PM on 01/27/2012

not if it's only on ATT

[amajamus]

01:27 PM on 01/27/2012

I just ordered mine from ebay . . . can't wait toget it.

[Layman23]

11:46 AM on 01/27/2012

Funny, anytime that name of the company isn't Apple they are mentioned as "Rivals". When those so called "Rivals" say for example have created some mind boggling feat like a time machine then the headline once again is "Apple Rival invents time Machine. Apple is not far behind".

Who said an Apple a day keeps the doctor away? HP is taking that very seriously !

[slocomgp]

12:12 PM on 01/27/2012

Hmmm, maybe this will help your confusion. See definition below.

rival |ˈrīvəl|
noun
a person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity : he has no serious rival for the job | [as adj.

[CT Independent]

12:25 PM on 01/27/2012

When it comes to reporting about Apple "rivals", HP has about as much credibilit­y as Newt Gingrich.

[amajamus]

01:29 PM on 01/27/2012

But Amazon has said repeatedly that the Fire isn't an Apple rival but yet the media keeps claiming it to be one. So even if you claim not to be a rival, you're labeled as one.

[CT Independent]

12:23 PM on 01/27/2012

Precisely. This is laughable and only goes to show the writers ignorance. When it comes to reporting about Apple "rivals", HP has about as much credibility as Newt Gingrich.

[amajamus]

01:30 PM on 01/27/2012

f/f

[Barbarian At The Gate]

11:15 AM on 01/27/2012

Is Android still the dominate smartphone OS?

[Daniel Myers]

11:41 AM on 01/27/2012

Was it ever in data use, revenue, profit, margin, web stats, loyalty, apps sold or apps free?

[Barbarian At The Gate]

12:01 PM on 01/27/2012

http://www.itproportal.com/2011/11/30/android-dominant-mobile-os-us-market-share/

Android is the top mobile OS with a 42.8% market share in 3rd quarter 2011. By individual company, Apple is the dominant smartphone maker. All the other stuff you listed would have to be calculated for each individual Android phone maker and then totaled up.

[PhillyKing]

12:27 PM on 01/27/2012

you know, unless you have apple stock, i dont know why fanbois always boast about how much "revenue" apple makes from them buying their stuff

[PhillyKing]

11:43 AM on 01/27/2012

i would assume so since this is only apple/samsung... doesn't take into acct HTC/Motorola/Sony etc... But at the same time they only said "smartphone" Samsung also makes WP7 phones

[Antnne]

11:03 AM on 01/27/2012

To be fair, Samnsung didnt have a new major phone in Q4. Apple had the 4S. Samnsung surely will overtake Apple again once the S3 is released.

[PhillyKing]

11:44 AM on 01/27/2012

doesn't matter to ne1 but shareholders as long as Sammy keeps pumping out the galaxy line i'll take em...

[helioszephyr]

12:54 PM on 01/27/2012

... and then iPhone 5, and then the next Sam...
it's a leapfrog game.