Has Samsung overtaken Nokia in handset sales?

Doing some last minute errands before I head off to the train station and then back to Manchester.

Based on the trends it was expected to happen some time this year, but we never thought so soon. I still remember from a few years back, Samsung claiming to be on a mission to dethrone Nokia. It was laughable back then given how strong Nokia seemed to be, but Samsung has continually ramped up sales, squeezing out smartphone after smartphone which to be fair, are pushing boundaries too (e.g. Note).

We suspected Samsung might have overtaken Nokia yesterday given the total 83M sales Nokia estimated for this quarter vs Samsung’s speculated 92M. Just this year Nokia lost out to Samsung/Apple for top smartphone manufacturer. Now, it seems the crown must be passed on to Samsung, with Nokia no longer the number 1 handset manufacturer by volume.

This should be confirmed by Nokia’s Q1 results on April 19th vs Samsung’s expected 92M.  Nokia’s mobile phones alone at 93.9M last quarter would have been enough (+ the smartphones to secure that top spot a little bit more). Instead both mobile phones and smartphones collapsed. 93.9M to 71M and 19m to 12M.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-12/samsung-probably-overtook-nokia-in-phone-handset-sales.html

Here’s another interesting look from Horace of Asymco.

http://www.asymco.com/2012/04/12/how-samsung-beat-nokia/

I don’t really have time to think this through right now, have to finish picking up a few bits before I leave. Darn Carphone Warehouse was supposed to deliver my phone on Tuesday and still today it’s not here. Gah.

Thanks Damen for the tip.

Category: Nokia