Samsung Reclaims Top Spot Among Phone Makers

Published on 2013/06/02 | Source

Samsung Electronics reclaimed its position as the world's No. 1 mobile phone maker in terms of sales in the first quarter of this year.

U.S. market researcher Strategy Analytics on Tuesday said the Korean manufacturer posted sales of US$23.62 billion, up $952 million from the previous quarter.

Apple, which ranked top in the fourth quarter of last year, fell to second place with sales down $7.71 billion on-quarter to $22.96 billion. Nokia came third place with $3.64 billion, followed by LG Electronics with $2.95 billion.

Samsung's resurgence is due to the fact the Apple iPhone 5, which hit showrooms in September last year, is losing momentum. Apple has unveiled no new models since the iPhone 5, but Samsung brought out over 100 slightly different models in the first quarter alone.

For the same reason, however, Apple far outperformed Samsung in terms of operating margin. Apple took the top spot with an operating margin of 31 percent, followed by Samsung with 21.8 percent.

LG ranked third with 4.1 percent, followed by Sharp (3 percent) and HTC (0.1 percent).