By
Telecom Lead Team:
Apple has retained its leadership in smartphone market in Q4 2011. Apple has
shipped 37 million iPhones, a quarter of the total smartphones shipped
worldwide in Q4.

While Apple
overtook Samsung to reach no.1, the Korean giant has increased its market share
four-fold since Q1 2010: from 4.7 percent to 21.7 percent.

HTC reported
significant year-on-year growth with 12.1 million smartphones shipments in Q4.
Blackberry-maker RIM’s shipments were steady year-on-year at 14.4 million, down
0.7 percent. Nokia’s OEMs smartphone shipments were down 31 percent y-o-y in
the fourth quarter.

Samsung’s
rise is forcing Apple to continue offering older models to keep ahead.
According to mobile analyst firm Juniper Research,
Apples’ return to top spot was partly driven by continuing to offer the iPhone
3GS — first launched in 2009 — at rock-bottom prices. This is an effort to
shore-up its defences again a bombardment of standard and premium smartphones
from Samsung.

“The
scale of Samsung’s product range is saturating the market. Apple has had to
counter Samsung’s products like the Galaxy Ace in order to maintain the
visibility of its brand,” said Daniel Ashdown, research analyst with
Juniper Research.

According to
strategy analytics,
global mobile phone shipments rose 11 percent to reach 445 million units in Q4
2011. Apple captured 8 percent market share worldwide during the quarter.
Full-year handset shipments reached 1.6 billion units globally in 2011, with
annual growth of 14 percent.

editor@telecomlead.com