Framingham, Mass. – When it comes to shipping smart connected devices, Samsung is now the worldwide champ, according to IDC.
Samsung took over the top spot from Apple by shipping 250 million such devices, defined by IDC as desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones, in 2012. Apple was not far behind, pumping out 218.7 million such products during the same period.
For the entire year, 1.2 billion smart connected devices were shipped worldwide, a 29.1 percent increase over 2011.
Samsung took over first place by boosting shipments more than 119 percent, giving the company 20.8 percent of the market. IDC credited this huge increase to Samsung’s efforts in the smartphone space and, to a lesser extent, with laptops.
Apple also performed well, jumping shipments 44.3 percent for 18.2 percent of the market. Apple shipped more tablets than Samsung, and was eighth in laptops and fifth in desktop PCs.
Apple did particularly well in the fourth quarter, said Bob O’Donnell, IDC’s program clients and displays VP, noting that Apple had lagged behind Samsung all year, but received a boost from the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini during the holiday period. These two products almost gave Apple the top spot for the fourth quarter, but Samsung held on by less than 1 percentage point.
Lenovo was the third largest shipper for the year with 78.3 million devices hitting the market, a 61.4 percent increase over 2011. IDC pointed to Lenovo’s strong performance in the mobile PC space, where it shipped about 30 million units. The company’s smartphone share also helped, although it is mainly focused on the Asian market right now.
Not all bode well for all the companies in the top five.
Fourth-place Hewlett-Packard and fifth-place Dell each saw shipments decline, 8.5 percent and 12.9 percent respectively, reported IDC.
HP found it hard to compete because it lacked a smartphone and tablet offering, IDC said, while Dell was in the same boat, having no smartphone on the market and being only a small placer in the tablet segment.
