Samsung passes Apple in smartphone sales
But profit falls 23% on weakness in the Korean company's other divisions. UPDATED with chart.
Samsung said in its third quarter results that it had shipped 28 million smartphones between July and September - more than Apple, which moved 17 million iPhones during the period.
The Korean company's telecommunications division accounted for 36% of revenue and half of its profit. But weakness in its consumer electronics and component divisions saw Samsung's income fall 23% overall.
Samsung's smartphone sales quadrupled over the same quarter last year.
Apple enjoyed 21% growth in iPhone sales over the year-ago quarter, but its 17 million July-September iPhone sales were down on the previous quarter's 20.1 million, and well below the 20-22 million analysts had expected (on the upside, Apple sold four million units of its new iPhone 4S during the handset's first three days onsale, hinting the lull in sales was due to people waiting for the new model; a comeback could be in the offing).
Chart courtesy BusinessInsider.com. Click to zoom.
Samsung's smartphone push has been centred on handsets running Google's Android software (although it's also making a Windows Phone foray).
The highest profile has been the Galaxy S II, sold here by Telecom and Vodafone.
Samsung recently claimed it had sold 10 million Galaxy S IIs since April. The SII sells for around $1000. The balance of the company's smartphone sales have come from cheaper models in the S series.
NBR staff
Mon, 31 Oct 2011
Mon, 31 Oct 2011
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Samsung passes Apple in smartphone sales
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