Samsung overtakes Apple, Nokia in phone sales

Apple isn’t the only global smartphone maker having a good week.

Samsung overtook Apple in the first three months of the year to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor and ended Nokia’s 14-year run as the largest maker of all phone handsets by volume, according to research release Friday by Strategy Analytics.

The South Korean electronics giant reported Friday a record net profit of $4.44 billion in the first quarter, led by strong mobile sales.

“Samsung’s global smartphone shipments rose 253% annually to 44.5 million units, as demand surged for its popular Galaxy models such as the Note, S2 and Y,” Alex Spektor, associate director at Strategy Analytics, said in a news release.

Apple’s sales of 35.1 million iPhones in the first quarter helped lead the company to double first quarter profits. Nokia sold 11.9 million handsets January through March, more than half as many the Finnish firm sold year on year, eroding its smartphone market share to 8.2% from 23.5% in 2011.

Nokia: The Finnish RIM

In overall handset sales, Samsung sold 93.5 million phones while Nokia sold 82.7 million units – the first time Samsung has topped Nokia in market share, Strategy Analytics reports.

Nokia – while still popular in developing markets - has seen its market share slowly erode due to slow entry in the high-end market and its former reliance on its Symbian software, which had proved all-thumbs compared to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Nokia is phasing out its Symbian phones after signing an agreement with Microsoft last year to switch smartphone software to Windows.