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BY EVAN THOMAS
ANCHOR JASMINE BAILEY
The news is repeating from the end of last year: Apple and Samsung continue to hold a
runaway lead in the global smartphone market.
According to numbers compiled by ABI for the first quarter of 2012, Apple and Samsung accounted
for 55 percent of smartphones sold, and the two companies took in more than 90 percent
of the market’s profits for the quarter.
Samsung is something of an anomaly. VentureBeat explains — it’s not the only manufacturer
sending Android phones to market, but it’s the only one that shipped 43 million.
“Samsung has been the only truly profitable Android manufacturer for some time, and its
continued success seems to indicate that Android is a bad money-maker for anyone not at the
top.”
In the face of these numbers, can anyone else compete? CNET says maybe. There are some strange
things going on in mobile phones right now.
“Interestingly, Nokia's slide in smartphones may allow another struggling player, Research
in Motion to pass it by. While RIM posted terrible results of its own, including a 20
percent sequential slide in BlackBerry shipments in the first quarter, they looked decent relative
to Nokia's own 40 percent drop.”
And don’t forget, says The Next Web, Google could enter the hardware race at any time.
“Google, of course, has plans to use its Motorola businesses to break into a clear
third place, but that could take time, if the company can pull it off at all. For now,
Apple and Samsung rule the roost.”
ABI reports smartphones account for half of the phone market in the U.S. So manufacturers
are increasingly turning to another big market — China. PC Magazine quotes an ABI official.
"’As Nokia's market share in China plummets, the competition to fill this power vacuum
has the potential to make or break smartphone OEMs currently struggling with profitability
and differentiation.’"
But China could end up simply echoing the situation stateside. Apple and Samsung combined
hold nearly 32 percent of the Chinese market.