Nokia has been ousted from the smartphone top five by Research In Motion (RIM) according to the latest IDC quarterly tracking survey. The Finnish company had been resident in the IDC top five table ever since its inception in 2004. Nokia has been underachieving in a growing market; “worldwide smartphone market vendors shipped 179.7 million units in 3Q12 compared to 123.7 million units in 3Q11” revealed the latest IDC figures. That’s a market over 45 per cent larger than a year ago.
Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2012 Q3
|
3Q12 Unit Shipments |
3Q12 Market Share |
3Q11 Unit Shipments |
3Q11 Market Share |
Year-over- year Change |
|
|
Samsung |
56.3 |
31.3% |
28.1 |
22.7% |
100.4% |
|
Apple |
26.9 |
15.0% |
17.1 |
13.8% |
57.3% |
|
RIM |
7.7 |
4.3% |
11.8 |
9.6% |
-34.7% |
|
ZTE |
7.5 |
4.2% |
4.1 |
3.3% |
82.9% |
|
HTC |
7.3 |
4.0% |
12.7 |
10.3% |
-42.5% |
|
Others |
74.0 |
41.2% |
49.9 |
40.3% |
48.3% |
|
|
|||||
|
Total |
179.7 |
100.0% |
123.7 |
100.0% |
45.3% |
|
Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, October 25, 2012 (Units in Millions) |
|||||
Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC said that “Nokia's share losses have meant gains for competitors.” He added that there is still plenty of scope in the market for Nokia (or others) to do well “The company's transition away from Symbian-powered smartphones to ones shipped with Windows Phone has left ample opportunity for rivals to steal share away from Nokia over the past 18 months. However, the smartphone market is still relatively nascent, which means there's room for multiple vendors and operating systems to flourish, including Nokia.”
Looking through the figures you can see the year has been particularly good for Samsung, it managed to ship more than double the amount of smartphones since last year. ZTE also enjoyed a fantastic 83 per cent uplift in sales, its smartphones are doing particularly well in emerging markets, says IDC.
On the flip side we have significantly worse than last year’s performance from HTC and RIM. RIM is currently relying on old smartphone models and hoping its BB10 OS and new smartphones will revitalise its fortunes. HTC held onto number five spot thanks to the HTC One X and EVO 4G success. Like Nokia, HTC is looking forward to Windows Phone 8 gaining ground and becoming popular.
From mobiles to drugs
In related news, it emerged late last week that Nokia is selling off its manufacturing plant in Salo, Finland. In June the company decided to close the factory and cut the 850 jobs there and is now selling off the facility to pharmaceutical company Orion. It was the last major mobile phone factory in Western Europe.
