Android has been labeled the “undisputed volume leader” by Neil Mawston of Strategy Analytics, because of dominating the market percentage over Symbian, iOS, Windows Phone and Blackberry. Even with a large increase in sales over last year, it was not enough for iOS to budge the deficit.

In total there were an estimated 700.1 million smartphones shipped in 2012 which is up from the 490.5 million handsets in 2011.  While it is not really a fair fight due to the fact there are many low end handsets on the market, Apple really only has two fighters in the game.  Pulling a 20% market share is somewhat reminiscent of the movie 300. [Spoiler Alert]  In the end the Spartans were defeated, but they took out quite a few Persians on the way!

To be really honest, 20% is actually rather impressive considering Apple really is only competing with a few handsets globally (iPhone 4, 4S and 5) versus the many, many Android competitors.

This latest information basically reveals nothing we didn’t already know, but it is interesting to see the actual estimated numbers and contemplate on the sheer magnitude in the volume of mobile phones out there.

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When it comes to United States smartphone sales, Apple is clearly king controlling a record 53 % of US smartphone market.

Looking at the bigger picture of all handset sales (feature and smartphone combined), Apple has solidly kept in second place ever since the release of the iPhone 4S– until now. A new report suggests that LG has taken the 2nd place spot, knocking Apple to third overall.

The report released by Hong Kong’s Counterpoint Research on Sunday said that LG had captured 13 % of the U.S. phone market sales last month, while Apple recorded only 12 %. Both LG and Apple are trailing big time however to longtime leader Samsung with a 33 % share of the market in December.

So what’s going on to push LG over Apple overall? While their feature phone marketshare probably hasn’t changed a whole lot,  LG just recently had announced 1 millions Optimus G units sold worldwide, and that coupled with sales of the Nexus 4 added to the rise in total sales last month.

Still, holding 3rd place in all feature/smartphone sales in the United States is pretty impressive for Apple nonetheless, when you consider that Apple only sells smartphones. What do you think of this market leader change, does it surprise you or not?

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This news comes by way of Reuters, which in turn got its information from “industry sources with knowledge of Sharp’s production plans.” While exact numbers are not available, they are saying that the production of the 9.7-inch screen has “fallen to the minimal level to keep the line running this month after a gradual slowdown began at the end of 2012.” This is at the Kameyama plant in Japan.

It’s possible that this is just a seasonal fluctuation and Apple may already be overstocked from overproduction during the holiday shopping rush. That said, as mentioned above, it’s also possible that more people bought the iPad mini instead and, thus, Apple is overstocked with the larger iPad too. Then again, Sharp isn’t Apple’s only supplier for these screens, as they buy them from LG and Samsung too. Maybe Sharp is getting too expensive, relatively speaking, for Cupertino?

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Since Samsung’s launch of the Galaxy Note II last September, it has been nothing less than a huge success.  In South Korea alone, there have been more than one million sales.  This only one month after Samsung had announced global sales reaching and exceeding five million units.

With these numbers, Samsung is on track to take the device sales to 10 million internationally by the end of Q1 2013.  This would be impressive, especially when taking into account that it took its predecessor nearly 10 months to reach the same milestone.

LG has also reported very similar domestic sales for its 5 inch Optimus Vu, but with one big difference. LG is counting both the Vu and Vu 2 sales in South Korea– whereas the Note 2 is just the Note 2, and nothing else.

What do you think of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2? Want one or not?

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