Near the end of last year, Samsung managed to push its way pass both Nokia and Apple to become the number one smartphone maker in the world. Now, the Cupertino-based tech company has managed to reclaim the number one spot.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, Cupertino’s record iPhone sales of 37.04 million within its most recent quarter (Q1 2012), assisted the iPad and iPod maker in assuming the mantle of the world’s number one smartphone vendor during the quarter. Apple also launched the iPhone 4S in that period, contributing to an increase in sales.

Strategy Analytics’s research puts Samsung’s smartphone shipments at 36.5 million, which along with Apple’s record sales helped global smartphone shipments increase by 54% annually, to reach a record 155 million units during Q4 of 2011.

Alex Spektor, associate director at Strategy Analytics said: “Apple overtook Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume with 24% market share. Apple’s global smartphone shipments surged 128% annually to 37.0 million units, as distribution of the iPhone family expanded across numerous countries, dozens of operators and multiple price points.”

In terms of the whole year, 488.5 million smartphones were shipped around the globe with Samsung coming up tops 97.4 million units, giving it a market share of 19.9% whilst Apple took second spot with its 93 million (19% market share) and Nokia rounding out the top 3 at 77.3 million (15.8% market share).

Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics added: “While Apple took the top spot in smartphones on a quarterly basis, Samsung became the market leader in annual terms for the first time with 20% global share during 2011. With global smartphone shipments nearing half a billion units in 2011, Samsung is now well positioned alongside Apple in a two-horse race at the forefront of one of the world’s largest and most valuable consumer electronics markets.”

The Finnish phone giant Nokia sold 19.6 million smartphones within its latest fiscal quarter (Q4 2011), a far cry from both Apple’s and Samsung’s smartphone sales tallies, as well as a year-on-year decrease of 31% when compared to the 28.6 million mobile devices Nokia sold during the same period last year.

However, this amount still represents a quarterly increase of 17% and out of the 19.6 million total smartphone sold, the Espoo-based company said that it had sold more than a million Windows Phone Mango-powered Lumia smartphones, which the company recently launched in South Africa.

Tom Kang, director at Strategy Analytics stated: “Nokia’s global smartphone market share halved from 33% in 2010 to 16% in 2011. A lackluster touchscreen smartphone portfolio and a limited presence in the huge United States market caused Nokia’s shrinkage last year.”

 

“Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft will be very much in focus during 2012, and the industry will be watching closely to see how swiftly the two companies can expand in the high-value 4G LTE market that is rapidly emerging across the United States, Japan and elsewhere.”