Samsung Tops 2011 Broadband Genie Smartphone Sales Charts

CAMBRIDGE, England, December 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

With just a week of the year to go, Samsung looks set to be 2011's top UK smartphones manufacturer at leading comparison website Broadband Genie.

Samsung has held off stiff competition from HTC, with other contenders trailing in their wake. Broadband Genie MD Ciaron Dunne said: It's been a great 2011 for both manufacturers. We're recording around four sales by these two for every one for Apple, BlackBerry, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. LG and Motorola are a long way behind despite having some great handsets on the market."

The Desire and Galaxy S brands took centre stage. The best individual handset in terms of sales tracked by Broadband Genie was the Samsung Galaxy S2, with the HTC Desire second, Samsung's original Galaxy S third and the HTC Desire HD fourth. Between them, they took more than a third of the year's tracked smartphone sales.

HTC had five models in the top 10 sellers, Samsung three, Apple and BlackBerry one. HTC's Wildfire and Wildfire S budget smartphones performed strongly (seventh and eighth respectively), while the BlackBerry Torch 9800 proved popular with Broadband Genie users.

In terms of operating systems, it is no surprise that Android dominated. Smartphones powered by Android made up around 75 per cent of sales, with the Apple OS and BlackBerry OS taking around 10 per cent each. While showing promise, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is yet to make much impact.

Broadband Genie compares thousands of web smartphone deals, both direct from mobile providers and from resellers. Pay as you go and SIM-free handset offers are available on sister site Mobile Phone Genie.

Broadband Genie editor Chris Marling added: "While our figures tend to mirror the global trend, our iPhone sales are far below them. We feel this is because many consumers buying Apple products tend to have their mind set on them from the beginning, rather than wanting to compare."

"We often remind our visitors that older hero handsets can be a better buy than the latest budget releases, so it was good to see the likes of the HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy S still performing well 18 months after their release."

                                                                Sony
    Manufacturer Samsung  HTC      Apple    BlackBerry Nokia    Ericsson
    Tracked
    sales        33%      32%      9%       9%         7%       7%

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Broadband Genie is the UK's leading independent broadband, mobile broadband and smartphone comparison website, providing consumers with an unbiased source of information on prices and contracts and allowing them to compare providers in an independent environment. Broadband Genie was launched in March 2004 as the first dedicated consumer comparison site for broadband, while Mobile Broadband Genie was the first independent mobile broadband comparison site, launched in October 2007. The sites were combined in 2010, with the addition of smartphone comparison. The site is one of the most popular in its field, regularly featuring in the national press. http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk

2. All queries and interview requests should be directed to Chris Marling at chris.marling@genieventures.co.uk

3. Due to commercial relationships we cannot reveal exact tracked sales figures.