157m smartphones sold in Q3 with Samsung increasing lead at No 1

Worldwide smartphone shipments exceeded 157 million in the third quarter of 2012 with Samsung increasing its lead in the number one position.

According to Juniper Research, Samsung sold a record 56.3 million smartphones in Q3 with Apple coming in second with 26.9 million iPhone sales.

Samsung’s Galaxy S III has played a major part in Samsung’s success and accounted for 18 million of the Korean company’s smartphone sales.

For Apple its figures were mainly for iPhone 4S sales as the iPhone 5 didn’t go on sale until Sept 21 – nine days before the end of the quarter.

Many iPhone customers held off renewing their device until the iPhone 5 was launched.

But it should be noted the 26.9 million iPhones sold in Q3 was still a 58 per-cent increase over the same quarter a year ago , according to Apple’s earnings report.

Apple is expected to record stronger sales figures in the next quarter on the back of the success of the iPhone 5.

Apple said the iPhone 5 recorded five million sales in the first three days after it went on sale to become the fastest selling phone in history.

Juniper Research says Samsung has been successful and increased smartphone sales from the previous quarter by leveraging its global brand strength and the growing popularity of the Android operating system.

And while it’s been good results from Samsung and Apple, the news isn’t so good for companies like Nokia and RIM (Research In Motion) – the company behind the BlackBerry.

Nokia shipped 6.3 million smartphone in Q3 – a 63 per cent drop from Q3 2011 – which indicates the company’s Windows Phone devices are yet to make an impact on the market.

Another reason for these conservative figures may also be partly due to customers waiting to buy Windows 8 smartphones which are due in Q4.

RIM slumped to 7.7 million device sales in Q3 2012.

LG may have only sold 7 million smartphones in Q3 it was still a 24 per cent year-on-year increase over Q3 last year.

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