A long way to go
Market researcher Gartner has released its latest figures for the mobile device market, and they confirm that smartphones already account for almost a quarter of all mobile phone sales.
"Smartphones accounted for 23.6 percent of overall sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85 percent year-on-year," said Roberta Cozza of Gartner. "This share could have been even higher, but manufacturers announced a number of high-profile devices during the first quarter of 2011 that would not ship until the second quarter of 2011. We believe some consumers delayed their purchases to wait for these models."
But the most revealing figures concerned platforms. Android now accounts for over a third of all smartphones sold, up from a tenth a year ago. Meanwhile Apple is holding its own in a market that has almost doubled.
Everyone else is struggling. RIM is starting to look like another Nokia in so much as it risks being left behind by the smartphone revolution. Symbian, as expected, is taking a spanking, with Nokia having abandoned it in favour of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, but it's not exactly joining a winning team.
Not only did Microsoft's share of the smartphone market almost halve in Q1, Gartner reckons only 1.6 million WP7 units were shifted - the first full quarter since they were launched. The two companies will be hoping to make a right out of what are currently two wrongs.
"Every time a user downloads a native app to their smartphone or puts their data into a platform's cloud service, they are committing to a particular ecosystem and reducing the chances of switching to a new platform. This is a clear advantage for the current stronger ecosystem owners Apple and Google," said Cozza. "As well as putting their devices in the context of a broader ecosystem, manufacturers must start to see their smartphones as part of a computing continuum."
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 1Q11 (Thousands of Units)
|
Company |
1Q11 Units |
1Q11 Market Share (%) |
1Q10 Units |
1Q10 Market Share (%) |
|
Android |
36,267.8 |
36.0 |
5,226.6 |
9.6 |
|
Symbian |
27,598.5 |
27.4 |
24,067.7 |
44.2 |
|
iOS |
16,883.2 |
16.8 |
8,359.7 |
15.3 |
|
Research In Motion |
13,004.0 |
12.9 |
10,752.5 |
19.7 |
|
Microsoft |
3,658.7 |
3.6 |
3,696.2 |
6.8 |
|
Other OS |
3,357.2 |
3.3 |
2,402.9 |
4.4 |
|
Total |
100,769.3 |
100.0 |
54,505.5 |
100.0 |
Source: Gartner (May 2011)
An interesting aspect of the total mobile phone sales breakdown by vendor is that nearly everyone lost market share. HTC and ZTE did well, but the biggest winner was ‘others', which probably points towards local, budget brands.
Worldwide Mobile Terminal Sales to End Users in 1Q11 (Thousands of Units)
|
Company |
1Q11 Units |
1Q11 Market Share (%) |
1Q10 Units |
1Q10 Market Share (%) |
|
Nokia |
107,556.1 |
25.1 |
110,105.4 |
30.6 |
|
Samsung |
68,782.0 |
16.1 |
64,897.1 |
18.0 |
|
LG |
23,997.2 |
5.6 |
27,190.1 |
7.6 |
|
Apple |
16,883.2 |
3.9 |
8,270.1 |
2.3 |
|
RIM |
13,004.0 |
3.0 |
10,752.5 |
3.0 |
|
ZTE |
9,826.8 |
2.3 |
6,104.3 |
1.7 |
|
HTC |
9,313.5 |
2.2 |
3,378.4 |
0.9 |
|
Motorola |
8,789.7 |
2.1 |
9,574.5 |
2.7 |
|
Sony Ericsson |
7,919.4 |
1.9 |
9,865.7 |
2.7 |
|
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. |
7,002.9 |
1.6 |
5,236.1 |
1.5 |
|
Others |
154,770.9 |
36.2 |
104,230.3 |
29.0 |
|
Total |
427,846 |
100.0 |
359,605 |
100.0 |
Source: Gartner (May 2011)
