Apple has surpassed Finland’s Nokia to become the world’s largest handset vendor in revenue terms, a technology research company said on Thursday.
Strategy Analytics said Apple overtook Nokia for the first time in the first quarter with an iPhone revenue estimated at US$11.9 billion on sales of 18.6 million units.
Nokia revenue was estimated at US$9.4 billion for the period. The Finnish company remains No. 1 overall in terms of units sold, selling 108.5 million handsets in the first quarter, but for cheaper prices than the iPhone.
Photo: Reuters
“With strong volumes and high wholesale prices, [Apple] has successfully captured revenue leadership of the total handset market in less than four years,” Alex Spektor of Strategy Analytics said.
“In revenue terms, Apple is now the world’s largest handset vendor, smartphone vendor and tablet vendor,” added Neil Mawston, director at Boston-based Strategy Analytics.
Strategy Analytics also said that it expects that the number of smartphones running Google’s Android software to surpass the iPhone by the end of the year.
Reporting its fiscal second-quarter results on Wednesday, Apple said it nearly doubled its quarterly net profit on record iPhone sales.
The Cupertino, California-based gadget maker said it sold 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter, up 113 percent from a year ago and helped by the addition of a second US carrier, Verizon.
Separately, Samsung Electronics said yesterday it has filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging patent infringements, days after the US technology firm took the South Korean company to court on similar grounds.
Samsung said it filed suit on Thursday in a Seoul court alleging five patent infringements by Apple. Separate suits were filed in Tokyo citing two patent infringements and in the German city of Mannheim citing three.
“Samsung is responding actively to the legal action taken against us in order to protect our intellectual property and to ensure our continued innovation and growth in the mobile communications business,” the company said in a statement that gave no details of the alleged infringements.
The announcement came a week after Apple filed suit against Samsung in San Francisco claiming that the South Korean giant copied its smartphones and tablet computers.
Apple’s lawsuit says Samsung’s mobile phones and Galaxy Tab imitated the iPhone and the iPad. Samsung vowed at the time to “respond actively.”
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