Apple may play second fiddle in Q4

HONG KONG - Samsung Electronics’ smartphone shipments will likely exceed 60 million units in the fourth quarter, proving its prowess in the world’s mobile phone market despite its ongoing patent war with Apple, an investment bank said yesterday.

UBS estimated the Korean company will sell 61.5 million smartphones from October to December, up 5 percent from an estimated 58 million in the previous quarter. The number could reach as high as 63 million, it added.

The key contributor to growth will be the Galaxy Note 2, a hybrid of a smartphone and a tablet PC, released in late September, it said.

“The Galaxy Note 2 has shipped 3 million units in its first five weeks of sales, with sell-through strong in Asia and Europe, and the U.S. gathering pace post-launch,” said Nicolas Gaudois, an analyst at UBS. “As such we forecast sales of 7 million Galaxy Note 2s, compared to our initial expectation of 5 million for the fourth quarter.”

Solid sales of the model suggest the impact of Apple’s latest iPhone 5 may fall short of expectations, he said.

“We see a limited ramp-down, if any at all, for the Galaxy S3, and we feel comfortable with our 15 million estimate for the fourth quarter of 2012,” Gaudois said.

Yonhap