Samsung Electronics Co overtook Apple Inc as the world’s top smartphone maker in the July-September period with a 44% jump in shipments, and forecast strong sales in the current quarter in a clear warning to its rivals.“In the handset division, Samsung has no real rival models to challenge its products except for the iPhone 4S. Apple and Samsung will continue to dominate the market in the fourth quarter,” said Kim Hyun-joong, a fund manager at Midas Asset Management, which owns Samsung shares.
Profits from Samsung’s telecoms division, announced on Friday, more than doubled from a year ago to a record 2.5 trillion won ($2.2 billion) and accounted for 60% of its total profit, offsetting a plunge in earnings from its bread-and-butter memory chips.iPhone sales shrank by 16% to 17.1 million units in the third quarter. Samsung had 23.8% of the global smartphone market in the third quarter, 9 points higher than Apple. Samsung’s flagship Galaxy line of products is powered by Google’s Android software.