When Apple produced the earthquake that changed the landscape of telephony with the original iPhone, they could not imagine that the inertia generated by the movement it was causing would benefit Samsung as it has. Retreating Nokia as a leader in telephony and the ability of South Korea to adapt to the open junctures arranged to Samsung not only the first manufacturer of smartphones, but also mobile phones in general. Something that has been certifying for several quarters.
In our country the situation is the same. In July of this year, 32 percent of the mobiles in Spain were from Samsung. Nokia endures, and is positioned as the second manufacturer, signing 28 percent of the terminals that make up the number of telephones in the national territory. However, when it comes to analyzing which are the best-selling equipment in each of the four ranges in which smartphones are segmented (premium, high, medium and low), it is Samsung that imposes its dominance in an undeniable way.
Always referring to data from the consulting firm Kantar Worldpanel, we verify that of the 20 devices that make up the top five of the four categories mentioned, eleven are from Samsung, being also the manufacturer that sells the most in each one. Thus, between September 2012 and August 2013, the Samsung Galaxy S3 was the most demanded smartphone, representing 30.4 percent of all Premium mobiles in the Spanish market, followed by the iPhone 5.
But beware, the distance between the two is as obvious as that in the case of Apple's phone it represents just half: 15.2 percent. And in fact, fourth place is held by the Samsung Galaxy S4, with eight percent of sales in this category, compared to fifth by the iPhone 4S with 6.8 percent.
We must make it clear that mobile premium are not the best sellers of our country. Only 17 percent of the smart devices that are marketed respond to the characteristics that make them worthy of this distinction, compared to the overwhelming 56 percent of low-end smartphones. However, Samsung, we insist, also dominates in this section.
And it does so by certifying a first, third and fourth place with the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 (13.4 percent), Samsung Galaxy Mini (7.1 percent) and Samsung Galaxy Y Duos (6.9 percent). Sony takes second place in this section with its Sony Xperia U (11.3 percent) and LG claims fifth place in the low-end with the LG Optimus L5 (5.9 percent).
Among the high and mid-range they take the remaining 27 percent of the pie, at a rate of thirteen and fourteen percent, respectively. And, once again, the South Korean multinational hits the table. Kantar's study assumes that the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini and Samsung Galaxy S2 were considered high-end terminals in the analyzed period, representing 35.2 and 27.6 percent in this category.
It is in the mid-range where the Seoul-based company would sweep: four of the five teams on this list are from Samsung, where only the HTC Desire X is presented as an alternative among the most popular smartphones in this segment, with 4.7 percent. However, here the Samsung Galaxy Ace sweeps: 54.7 percent of all the mid-range sold in the period of time covered by the study were one of the units of this model from the South Korean.
