Samsung to widen lead on Apple in smartphone market

Samsung Electronics Co. will likely widen its lead over closest rival Apple Inc. in the smartphone market share largely thanks to its diverse range of products, a report showed Tuesday.

The South Korean tech leader is expected to hold a 37 percent share of the global smartphone market in 2013, selling 284 million units globally, Korea Investment & Securities Co. predicted in the report.

It was comparable to the iPhone maker's 20.4 percent, equivalent to 157 million units. 

The difference between the two smartphone giants' market shares is estimated to rise to 16.6 percentage points next year, compared with 13.2 percentage points this year.

For 2012, Samsung Electronics will hold a 33.1 percent share with 212.9 million units, while Apple will hold a 19.9 percent share with 128 million units. Last year, the market share gap between the two was 7 percentage points.

Samsung Electronics' further advantage over the California firm was mainly attributed to its solid sales of low to mid-range Galaxy series products as well as high-end Galaxy models.

Meanwhile, LG Electronics Inc., long seen as a laggard in the smartphone market, will increase its market share to 4.7 percent in 2013 from 4.1 percent this year, while Nokia Corp. will drop to 4.7 percent from 5.6 percent.

Korea Investment & Securities expected China's homegrown makers, such as ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co., to steadily benefit from the rapid growth of China's smartphone market.

Huawei Technologies and ZTE will account for 4.7 percent and

4.4 percent, respectively, of the global smartphone market next year, up from 4.2 percent and 3.9 percent this year. (Yonhap News)