Smartphone shipments grow 43% globally in 2012 

(MENAFN) Strategy Analytics, the research firm, stated that during the past year, smartphone shipments surged 43 percent on annual basis to hit 700 million devices globally, reported Xinhua News.

The firm said that South Korea's Samsung captured a 30-percent market share, with 213 million smartphones shipped in 2012, including the Galaxy Note2 phablet and the Galaxy Y.

Meanwhile, Apple's market share in the year stood at 19 percent, with its total shipped smartphones reaching 135.8 million units globally.

Furthermore, Nokia remained the third-largest smartphone vendor in the world in 2012; however, its market share has fallen to 5 percent from 16 percent.

According to the company, large marketing budgets, wide distribution channels and attractive product portfolios have allowed Samsung and Apple to dominate the smartphone industry, with both firms making up half of all smartphones shipped last year.