Juniper Research has weighed in on smartphone shipments during the all-important final quarter of 2012, estimating that over 200 million smartphones were shipped during the period, with the annual total reaching about 671 million. This represents growth of almost 42 percent year over year.
As all research firms tend to agree, Samsung generally reigned supreme over the period, shipping a record 63 million smartphones during the last three months of 2012 — accounting for 30 percent of all smartphones shipped. Of course, the company's flagship device, the Galaxy S III, drove the majority of growth, selling 40 million units in November alone.
Apple's iPhone, meanwhile, also boasted record sales for the quarter at 47.8 million units, but falling short of Juniper's expectations.
According to Kantar Worldpanel Comtech, the iPhone did best in the U.S. and Japan, accounting for 51.2 and 66 percent of smartphone sales in these countries, respectively, while Android, led by Samsung, did better in other areas of the world.
In terms of other mobile operating systems, Juniper stated that Nokia shipped a total of 6.6 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, 4.4 million of which were Lumia devices running Windows Phone. The remaining 2.2 million devices were running Symbian, marking a large decline for the semi-retired OS.
RIM's results, meanwhile, are expected to account for just under 6.7 million smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter.
Juniper Research was founded in 2001 and specializes in providing analysis, strategic assessment and business modeling of high growth mobile market sectors. In September 2012, the company published a report entitled “Mobile Security Strategies: Threats, Solutions & Market Forecasts 2012-2017.”
This report states that by 2014, business mobile devices will number almost 350 million, while the number of protected devices is expected to grow to 20 percent of mobile devices by 2017 in response to the increasing number of mobile malware incidents.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman 
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