Samsung Takes This Crown From Apple

The iPhone may be winning the smartphone popularity charts, but Samsung (SSNFL.PK) took over Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the overall market for smart connected devices last year. The Korean company more than doubled its shipments of smartphones, tablets, and PCs last year, according to new data from IDC. Apple grew 44 percent, but fell behind its rival.

A report from Strategy Analytics earlier this week said the iPhone beat Samsung’s Galaxy S III as the most popular smartphone in the world in the fourth quarter of 2012.

However, Samsung shipped a total of 250 million smart connected devices last year, up from 114 million in 2011 and accounting for 20.8 percent of global shipments, IDC said. Apple shipped 218.7 million devices, up 44 percent from 2011 when it held the top spot. It made up 18.2 percent of the worldwide share in 2012…