IDC confirms Samsung as the world’s no.1 smartphone manufacturer

Samsung has taken the world no.1 smartphone manufacturer crown from Apple as research firm IDC confirms that the Korean manufacturer tripled its smartphone shipment in the third quarter of this year.

Samsung took 20% of the market, up from 8.8% a year earlier whilst Apple’s shipments dropped to 15% from 17% in the same period. Nokia’s share fell by more than half to 14%.

Meanwhile, Taiwan-based HTC entered into the top five for the first time, boosting its share of shipments to 11% from 7.1% a year earlier while RIM lost 5% of its global share of shipments from 15% to 10%.

Interestingly HTC and Samsung both sold more smartphones in the U.S. than Apple did in the third quarter of this year.

Does this spell the end for Apple’s dominance in the smartphone market? Well, it depends on who you talk to but to us, it is definitely a significant shift in consumer perception towards alternative mobile platforms like Android and Windows Phone, but the war is certainly not over. Samsung will find maintaining the title of world’s top smartphone manufacturer challenging as competition from the likes of HTC, Sony Ericsson and Motorola will be fierce. Let’s also not forget Apple is not going to take this lying down — though let’s hope they respond with better products rather than lawsuits.

What’s certain is its us, the consumer, that will benefit greatly from all this with a plethora of devices in all kinds of shapes and forms to choose from.

Wonder what the fanboys have to say about all this?

[source]