ZTE surges past Apple to become the world's fourth biggest phone maker

ZTE has become fourth on a global scale of phone makers by sheer volume. The company zipped past Apple, which remains the world’s fifth biggest phone maker in a quarter marked with anticipation of the iPhone 4S. ZTE registered shipments of 18 million handsets in the quarter, more than Apple’s 17.1 million iPhones.

At the same time, Samsung continues increasing its sales volume, thus closing the gap with Nokia which is on the decline. In the third quarter alone, Samsung shipped 88 million handsets, while Nokia shipped 106.6 million. Looking from the point of view of market shares, Nokia held 27.3% of the market, while Samsung trailed behind with 22.6%.

LG, the world’s third largest phone maker, is far behind with only 21.1 million phones shipped, a huge decline when compared with the 28.4 million the Korean company shipped in the same period last year. That’s partly due to the drop in popularity of the LG Optimus One.

“Despite ongoing economic volatility, global handset shipments grew a relatively healthy 14 percent annually to reach 390 million units in Q3 2011. ZTE was the star performer as it captured 5 percent market share and overtook Apple to become the world’s fourth largest handset vendor. ZTE’s growth is being driven by competitive pricing of entry-level models for feature phones and Android smartphones,” Alex Spektor, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, commented.