Report: Samsung overtakes Nokia in phone sales

Asia's largest electronics maker Samsung has overtaken Nokia as the top handset seller for the first time, aided by the popularity of its Galaxy smartphones and Google's Android operating system, Bloomberg reported.

The news agency said on Thursday that, based on the median of five estimates in a Bloomberg News survey, the South Korean company has shipped about 92 million mobile phones, including feature phones, in the first quarter of 2012. By contrast, Nokia shipped 83 million units--12 million smartphones and 71 million low-end models--during the same timeframe, the report noted.

"Samsung is displacing Nokia fast. Nokia, with no competitiveness in smartphones, will keep losing ground," said Lee Sun Tae, an analyst at NH Investments & Securities, in the report.

This displacement at the top signals the end of Nokia's 14-year reign in the global mobile phone market, it noted. Both Samsung and Nokia declined to comment on the Bloomberg estimates, though.

The Finnish phonemaker has been working hard at pushing out its Windows Phone-based Lumia devices globally, and launched its Lumia 900 device in the United States on Monday. However, company executives on Wednesday reported a serious software glitch in the device that could sometimes kill the phone's data connectivity, and the negative feedback could stunt its latest push to gain ground in the U.S. market, according to a report by ZDNet Asia's sister site, ZDNet UK.