Gartner expects smart phone shipments to grow by 39% in 2012

According to foreign media reports, market research firm Gartner released a report on Wednesday that in the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple surpassed Samsung Electronics as the world's largest smartphone maker. Gartner also pointed out that in 2012, the global mobile equipment market shipments will increase by 7%, and the smart phone market shipments will increase by 39%.

Gartner said in the report that in the fourth quarter of December 31, 2011, Apple smartphone shipments totaled 3.546 million, which accounted for 23.8% of the global smartphone market, which was 15.8% higher than the same period of last year. . Samsung Electronics ranked second in sales of 34 million units with its popular Galaxy smartphone product line. Gartner pointed out that "Samsung Electronics and Apple have further consolidated their market position in the fourth quarter, driven by outstanding brands and new products."

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the global smartphone shipments reached 149 million units, an increase of 47.3% over the same period of last year. Among them, smart phones equipped with Google's Android operating system accounted for 50.9% of the total smartphone shipments, which was 30.5% higher than the previous year. Nokia’s share of the Symbian operating system is still falling. The operating system’s market share in the fourth quarter was 11.7%, which was far below the 32.3% recorded in the same period of last year. Nokia announced last year that the company will gradually abandon the Symbian operating system, and instead use Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system in all smart phones. Although Nokia has introduced several products with Windows Phone operating system, the market share of Windows Phone operating system is still very low. In the fourth quarter of last year, the share was only 1.9%.

Gartner also pointed out in the report that in the fourth quarter of last year, global mobile phone shipments totaled 476.5 million units, an increase of 5.4% from the same period last year. Nokia is still the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer with a market share of 23.4%, which is lower than the 27.1% in the same period of last year. Samsung Electronics ranked second with a market share of 19.4%, which is higher than the 17.5% of the same period of last year. Driven by the iPhone, Apple surpassed South Korea’s LG Electronics in the fourth quarter to become the world’s third-largest handset maker.

Gartner pointed out in the report, LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Motorola Mobile, RIM's market share in the fourth quarter showed a varying degree of decline. According to Gartner, these manufacturers are also threatened by low-end smartphone makers ZTE and Huawei, both of which have increased their market share in the fourth quarter.

Gartner expects that the global mobile equipment market will increase by 7% in 2012, and the smart phone market will increase shipments by 39%.