Samsung knocks Nokia off perch at top of global mobile market. - According to estimates from Gartner information technology researchers, the Korean Samsung group has become the leader in mobile telephone sales, having overtaken the Finnish company, Nokia, in the first quarter of 2012. In the first three months of 2012, Samsung sold around 22 million phones (25.4% of market share), as opposed to 83 million (22.5% of market share) sold by its Finnish rival. In 2011 taken as a whole, Nokia was still the market leader with 23.8% of market share compared to Samsung's 17.7%. The Finnish group has held top ranking since 1998. According to one analyst, this relegation shows that it is now smart phones that generally appear to be creating growth in the mobile phone market and no longer traditional mobile phones, as has been the case over the past decade. Samsung is better positioned than the Finnish group on the smart phone market, with 35% of sales in this segment as opposed to just 14% for the Nokia. In the future, analysts are forecasting that, in the smart phone sector, the race will be on between Samsung and Apple, which are leaving their competitors far behind. According to estimates from JP Morgan, the Korean group is on course to sell 190 million smart phones in 2012, as opposed to Apple's 132 million. (IL/transl.fl)