Samsung becomes top global mobile phone seller in 2012

 South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. sold more than 400 million mobile phones last year, outstripping Nokia Corp. as the world's leading handset vendor, an industry report showed Sunday.

   According to the latest report by International Data Corp., Samsung's shipments of smartphones and other handsets jumped 22.7 percent on-year to 407 million in 2012, taking up 23.7 percent of the global cellphone market.

   In comparison, last year's top global vendor Nokia saw its sales tumble 19.5 percent from a year earlier to 335.6 million units for a 19.6 percent market share.

   Apple Inc. followed with sales of 136.8 million mobile phones for an 8 percent market share. Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE came in fourth with 65 million units, trailed by South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. with 55.9 million.

   Last year, global mobile phone shipments totaled 1.71 billion units, down 0.2 percent from the previous year, with 545.2 million smartphones sold.

   Smasung also clinched the top spot in the lucrative smartphone segment last year, according to the report.

   Samsung's smartphone shipments jumped 129 percent on-year to 215.8 million units last year for a global market share of 39.6 percent, up a whopping 20.6 percentage points from the previous year.

   Apple came a distant second with sales of 136.8 million units and a 25.1 percent market share.

   In the fourth quarter of last year, Samsung was also the top global vendor of mobile phones with sales of 111.2 million units, including 63.7 million smartphones, according to the report. (Yonhap News)