2012 was a great year for Samsung (despite the odd blip), with the Korean company overtaking Nokia to become the world's biggest mobile maker. And next year it'll ship out even more phones, according to a report.
Samsung expects to up the number of phones it ships to over 500 million units, according to the Korea Times. That's a 20 percent increase on this year's 420 million. Of those half a billion, 390 million are expected to be smart phones, and the rest budget feature handsets.
These stats differ somewhat from research company Gartner's estimates, however. That company reckons Samsung will sell between 250 million and 300 million smart phones next year. But whichever is closer to the truth, it's a huge increase on the 97.4 million smart phones Samsung sold in 2011, 23.9 million in 2010, and 600,000 in 2009.
These figures are for handsets shipped from Samsung to resellers, rather than actual devices in the hands of consumers. But still, they're a pretty good indicator of demand.
Samsung's biggest hit has been its flagship handset, the Galaxy S3, which has sold over 30 million units. Though its Galaxy Note 2 hasn't done too badly either, managing 3 million. That's even more impressive when you consider it's over 5-inches big, a size unthinkable for a phone a couple of years ago, but that's now becoming all the more popular.
And if you think 5-inches is a silly size for a phone, there could well be a 7-inch Galaxy Note on the way next year. Add that to the 6.1-inch Huawei Ascend Mate revealed recently, and you can't deny it, phones are getting bigger.
Do you think Samsung will stay top dog for much longer? What do you reckon of the company's devices? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.
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Damien2501 27 December, 2012 10:44
C' Mon #TeamSamsung you can do it :) Sadly, unless they release a cheap follow up to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, unfortunately Im gonna get the new Google Nexus 4, which is at the moment the best phone in the world!
anonymous 27 December, 2012 13:26
Samsung? There life at the top is coming to an end. I give it a month, two at the most. Do they not know that BB10 is just a month away? I bet the top brass are trembling with fear right about now...
CaptainPicard 27 December, 2012 23:41
@Damien2501 dafuq??
And Samsung caters phones for all market segments, has a good marketing strategy, and even a loyal fan base, so it'll stay top dog for a pretty long time in my opinion. But Huawei, ZTE and even Motorola are Sammys biggest threat, because they have really competitive prices on their devices. Also, Samsung needs to remember its about quality not quantity, it shouldnt let its guard down.
anonymous 28 December, 2012 09:31
Samsung, I find these sales hard to believe as your firmware updating sucks. I had an S2 which was originally supposed to get an update around November, you couldn't even update the S3 by then. Well now I've moved over to the Nexus 4. You wonder why it keeps selling out? could it be unfulfilled promises of updates. I'd like to see the sales figures of the Nexus 4 as this would have mostly gone to the S3 especially if it had JB 4.2
anonymous 28 December, 2012 09:32
Samsung, I find these sales hard to believe as your firmware updating sucks. I had an S2 which was originally supposed to get an update around November, you couldn't even update the S3 by then. Well now I've moved over to the Nexus 4. You wonder why it keeps selling out? could it be unfulfilled promises of updates. I'd like to see the sales figures of the Nexus 4 as this would have mostly gone to the S3 especially if it had JB 4.2
anonymous 28 December, 2012 09:33
Samsung, I find these sales hard to believe as your firmware updating sucks. I had an S2 which was originally supposed to get an update around November, you couldn't even update the S3 by then. Well now I've moved over to the Nexus 4. You wonder why it keeps selling out? could it be unfulfilled promises of updates. I'd like to see the sales figures of the Nexus 4 as this would have mostly gone to the S3 especially if it had JB 4.2
anonymous 28 December, 2012 09:35
Samsung, I find these sales hard to believe as your firmware updating sucks. I had an S2 which was originally supposed to get an update around November, you couldn't even update the S3 by then. Well now I've moved over to the Nexus 4. You wonder why it keeps selling out? could it be unfulfilled promises of updates. I'd like to see the sales figures of the Nexus 4 as this would have mostly gone to the S3 especially if it had JB 4.2
anonymous 28 December, 2012 09:39
Samsung, I find these sales hard to believe as your firmware updating sucks. I had an S2 which was originally supposed to get an update around November, you couldn't even update the S3 by then. Well now I've moved over to the Nexus 4. You wonder why it keeps selling out? could it be unfulfilled promises of updates. I'd like to see the sales figures of the Nexus 4 as this would have mostly gone to the S3 especially if it had JB 4.2
anonymous 28 December, 2012 09:40
Samsung, I find these sales hard to believe as your firmware updating sucks. I had an S2 which was originally supposed to get an update around November, you couldn't even update the S3 by then. Well now I've moved over to the Nexus 4. You wonder why it keeps selling out? could it be unfulfilled promises of updates. I'd like to see the sales figures of the Nexus 4 as this would have mostly gone to the S3 especially if it had JB 4.2
anonymous 28 December, 2012 09:42
Samsung, I find these sales hard to believe as your firmware updating sucks. I had an S2 which was originally supposed to get an update around November, you couldn't even update the S3 by then. Well now I've moved over to the Nexus 4. You wonder why it keeps selling out? could it be unfulfilled promises of updates. I'd like to see the sales figures of the Nexus 4 as this would have mostly gone to the S3 especially if it had JB 4.2
Damien2501 28 December, 2012 11:44
@ CaptainPicard 27 December, 2012 23:41
@Damien2501 dafuq??
I aint the damien2501 you know, I got a capital D in my name and the other guy got a lower case d.
anonymous 28 December, 2012 16:59
@anonymous @9:31 9:32 9:33 9:35 9:39 9:40 9:42 what's wrong with you, you got a syndrome or something? And another thing a lot of Samsung customers are new or simply do not care about the updates so your reason for not believing is not valid and the nexus 4 availability was all planned and one more thing never trust any Damien2501 lower case or upper case why do two different people have such similar names? BS
Damien2501 29 December, 2012 13:00
@ anon 16.59, I'm a parody account of damien2501, I will post pro Android comment and not the BS the idiot you know posts. And Yh, I agree with your first point.
#TeamAndroid #TeamSamsung