Samsung Shipped Nearly Twice as Many Smartphones as Apple [IDC]

Driven by the high demand for the iPhone 5, Apple’s handset shipment volume reached a new first-calendar-quarter high, but it couldn’t outpace Samsung, which maintained the No. 1 smartphone vendor position, shipping 71 million handsets during the first three months of the year, IDC reports.

The seasonally slow first quarter recorded a 4% growth Y-o-Y, as smartphone shipments surpassed feature-phone shipments for the first time. According to the International Data Corporation, smart handsets accounted for 51.6% (or 216.2 million) of the total of 418.6 million mobile phone shipments, signalling the high demand for smart connected devices.

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“Phone users want computers in their pockets. The days where phones are used primarily to make phone calls and send text messages are quickly fading away,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “As a result, the balance of smartphone power has shifted to phone makers that are most dependent on smartphones.”

Apple has maintained its second position for the fifth quarter in a row, posting a 6.6% growth Y-o-Y, while Samsung shipped more smartphone units than Apple, LG, Huawei and ZTE combined.