Smartphones accounted for 700 million of those devices.
Samsung led the charge, with 213 million smartphones sold. Apple came in second at 135 million iPhones sold.
In overall mobile phone sales, Samsung topped the list at 396.5 million devices, followed by Nokia at 335.6 million units shipped. Apple was in third (with that 135 million iPhones) followed by Chinese star ZTE at 71.7 million. All others, including RIM, Sony, Motorola, HTC, Huawei and more totaled the remaining 635.4 million devices shipped.
Neil Shah, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added: "Ongoing macroeconomic challenges in mature markets like North America and Western Europe, tighter operator upgrade policies, and shifting consumer tastes were among the key reasons why global mobile phone shipments grew just 2 percent annually to reach 1.6 billion units in 2012. Fuelled by robust demand for its popular Galaxy models, Samsung was the star performer, shipping a record 396.5 million mobile phones worldwide and capturing 25 percent marketshare to solidify its first-place lead. However, Samsung's total volumes for the year fell just short of the 400-million threshold."
Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Jan 2013 19:09
