Apple and Samsung Steadily Climb as Nokia, HTC, and RIM Plummet

From DailyTech: The Interactive Data Corp. (IDC), one of the top market research firms in the U.S., has just released its latest smartphone numbers and they offer few surprises.

The losers -- struggling Taiwanese Android phonemaker HTC Corp. (TPE:2498), languishing Symbian-cum-Windows Phone Finnish phonemaker Nokia Oyj. (HEX:NOK1V), and embattled Canadian BlackBerry producer Research in Motion ltd. (TSE:RIM) -- all plummeted in sales.

Of them, Nokia dropped the most, seeing the phase out of Symbian cost it dearly. The IDC claims that Nokia's Q1 2012 sales were at about one-third of its Q1 2011 levels -- a shocking fall. RIM's sales fell a little bit more than in half, while HTC saw its sales fall almost in half.

The winners also don't exactly surprise. Apple, Inc. (AAPL) in Q1 2012 claimed 24.2 percent of smartphone sales, up nearly a third from its 18.3 percent market share in Q1 2011. That's an impressive recovery for a company whose Q3 2011 sales had slid beneath 15 percent by IDC's estimates.

Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) clung to the top spot, holding off a surging Apple. Like Reuters, the IDC believes Samsung outsold Apple in the last calendar quarter. That leaves iSuppli in the vocal minority claiming Apple outsold Samsung for the quarter.

Unlike Apple and Nokia, Samsung does not publish quarterly figures on the number of smartphones it sold, so its exact smartphone sales are open to debate.

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