Samsung has extended its lead over Apple in smartphones, in part because its new Galaxy phones came out before Apple updated its iPhone, research group IDC said on Friday.
Samsung’s Galaxy S3 phone got good reviews when it was released late in the second quarter. In the US, the smartphone works with the faster fourth-generation, or 4G, cellular networks that major wireless companies have been building. The Galaxy’s screen is larger than the iPhone’s, while the Samsung phone is lighter and thinner.
An iPhone with 4G capabilities is not expected until this fall. The current model, the iPhone 4S, came out in October and sales typically drop several months after each release.
Photo: Reuters
According to IDC, Samsung Electronics Co shipped 50.2 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter and commanded a market share of 33 percent, up from 17 percent a year ago. Apple Inc’s fell slightly to 17 percent, from 19 percent a year ago. It sold 26 million iPhones in the April-June quarter.
Besides having the Galaxy S3 out months before a new iPhone, Samsung also benefited from its strategy of developing several devices for a range of consumers. By contrast, Apple targets only the high-end market with its iPhone.
IDC said the big question is how well Samsung’s phones will sell once the new iPhone hits the market.
Overall, phone manufacturers shipped 154 million smartphones in the second quarter, a 42 percent increase from 108 million a year earlier. That was slightly below IDC’s forecast of 43 percent and was the slowest growth since the fourth quarter of 2009. At that rate, IDC said it would be tougher for Samsung and Apple to expand their market shares further. IDC said economic turmoil in Europe could put growth prospects at risk.
Including basic cellphones, vendors shipped 406 million units, up from 402 million a year earlier.
Samsung and Apple combined claimed nearly half of the smartphone market.
Nokia Corp was No. 3 with a 6.6 percent market share, down from more than 15 percent a year ago. Nokia has had some success with its Lumia line, based on Microsoft’s Windows system. The company is hoping for a boost once Microsoft releases a major upgrade to Windows in October, one designed with touch screens in mind.
Taiwanese manufacturer HTC Corp (宏達電) was fourth with 5.7 percent of the market, down from nearly 11 percent.
Chinese phone maker ZTE Corp (中興) claimed the No. 5 spot for the first time, with a 5.2 percent market share, up from 1.8 percent a year earlier. Its lower-cost, entry-level smartphones have been popular in China and Latin America.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six