Apple stole the smartphone sales crown from Samsung during the fourth quarter of 2011, research firm Juniper Research reported Monday.

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Another research firm, Juniper Analytics, estimates Samsung shipped 68 million smartphones during the first quarter, accounting for approximately 34% of the 200 million smartphones sold.

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"We beta-test things on the Abilene network, " says John Jameson, director of research education markets for Juniper.

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Juniper was started in 1996 by Pradeep Sindhu, a scientist at the fabled Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.

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