Samsung's Cell Phone Sales Surpass 300 Million

From DailyTech: Smartphones have dominated the discussion surrounding South Korean electronics conglomerate Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KS:005930). Samsung recently bested rival Apple, Inc. (AAPL) by 65 percent in calendar Q3 2011 unit sales to seize the global lead.

But it is the company's greater phone lineup, which primarily consists of so-called "feature phones" (i.e., traditional cell phones), that Samsung was celebrating in a recent press release. According to Samsung, its total mobile phone sales topped 300 million for the first time in the company's history.

While Apple may be Samsung's major rival in the smartphone industry, Nokia Oyj. (HEL:NOK1V) is Samsung's major nemesis in the general phone market. In 2010, Nokia outsold Samsung by moving 453 million devices [source; PDF] compared to Samsung's 280 million.

Samsung's did not reveal precise numbers, but sales of "over" 300 million would indicate at least a modest 7 percent growth.

That growth has come largely at the expense of Nokia. Thus far this year Nokia has reported [1][2][3] shipping 245.9 million traditional cell phones and 57.7 million smartphones, in the first three calendar quarters of the year -- down quite a bit from last year. Those numbers indicate that Nokia's overall cellular device sales could be down by 25 million units or more this year.

Samsung's battle with Nokia is especially fierce in China, the world's biggest feature phone and smartphone market.

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