According to the Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Samsung shipped more units in the first quarter of 2013 than the next four vendors combined. The company revealed its highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4 with new features including display, camera, WiFi, and security innovations.
What remains to be seen is how Samsung’s new Tizen-powered smartphones will look and feel later this year, and fit into the company’s overall smartphone portfolio.
Apple remains second while the next three were LG, Huawei and ZTE. Apple hit a new record high in the first quarter of 2013, growing 6.6 per cent on year on year. The report pinpointed the release of the iPhone 5 as one reason for the expansion.
It added: “The iPhone maker has held the second spot in the smartphone rankings for the past five quarters. Apple’s mix of models shipped to market is increasingly diversified as it tries to reach new buyers.”
LG returned to the smartphone Top 5 after a two-quarter absence, reaching record-high shipments in the process. Its smartphone volume for the quarter was driven in large part by its 3G smartphone portfolio, namely the L series and the Nexus 4.
Huawei has shown significant improvement from where it was a year ago, when it offered a handful of Ascend smartphones and had more limited presence outside the Asia/Pacific region. Since then Huawei has decreased its dependence on rebranded feature phones while growing its Ascend portfolio to address multiple customer segments with more branded smartphone offerings.
ZTE’s 1Q13 performance continued the trends established last year, with a strong showing in Asia/Pacific and North America, but a small presence in EMEA and Latin America despite its previous success with low-end feature phones there. With a target of increasing smartphone revenue by 30% this year, ZTE will try to grow in North America and Europe. In China, where increasing price pressure has challenged vendors to grow profitably, ZTE will emphasize its higher-price products. In addition, ZTE will be among the first companies to launch a Firefox-powered smartphone this year.
