Apple overtakes Nokia, becomes world's largest handset vendor by revenue

Strategy Analytics has published a report stating that Apple, Inc. has overtaken Nokia as the world’s largest handset vendor. “We estimate Apple’s wholesale revenues for its iPhone handset division stood at $11.9 billion in the first quarter of 2011,” said Alex Spektor, a Senior Analyst at the analytics firm. “Apple overtook Nokia for the first time, which recorded a lower $9.4 billion of wholesale handset revenues.” The report is determining the largest vendor by revenue earned during the first three months of 2011 — as opposed to market capitalization, handsets in market, or employee numbers. “Nokia remains the world’s biggest handset maker in terms of shipments,” the brief continues. “Nokia said mobile device shipments rose 1% in the first quarter to 108.5 million, while Apple said it had sold 18.6 million iPhones over the same period.” The Boston-based firm writes that it “expects the number of phones sold with Android to overtake those with Apple’s system by late 2011” — although this cumulative figure would not, in all likelihood, put a single Android handset manufacture ahead of the iDevice maker in terms of revenue. Strategic Analytics also hypothesizes that Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft could catapult it back to the top revenue spot in subsequent quarters.

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