Smartphone sales booming
Mobile phone sales are looking very healthy with smartphones leading the way. This is according to analyst Gartner which reports that global mobile phone sales grew by 35% in the third quarter of this year. Gartner estimates that worldwide sales of mobile phones reached 417 million in the quarter.
As impressive as this is, it is smartphones which are the real winner at this time. Gartner says that sales of smartphones grew by a very strong 96% in the third quarter of 2010 when compared with the same quarter of 2009. Smartphones also accounted for 19.3% of global mobile phone sales in the quarter.
“This is the third consecutive double-digit increase in sales year-on-year, indicating that consumer demand is healthy,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.
Milanesi says that the drivers for smartphone sales in the quarter were Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system. Apple in particular made a strong showing, passing Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry, in many regions for the first time.
Android also proved strong over the quarter, now well established as the number two mobile phone operating system behind Symbian.
Symbian has been the long-time leader in smartphone operating systems but continued its downward slide in the late part of the year, dropping from 44.6% market share in quarter three of 2009 to 36.6% in the third quarter of 2010. Android over the same period increased its share of the market from 3.5% to 25.5%.
Microsoft’s floundering mobile strategy was also obvious during the quarter. In the third quarter 2010 Windows operating systems dropped from 7.9% to just 2.8%.
| Mobile phone operating system market share | ||
| Operating System | 3rd Quarter 2010 | 3rd Quarter 2009 |
| Symbian | 36.6% | 44.6% |
| Android | 25.5% | 3.5% |
| iOS | 16.7% | 17.1% |
| RIM | 14.8% | 20.7% |
| Microsoft Mobile | 2.8% | 7.9% |
| Linux | 2.1% | 4.7% |
On the hardware front Nokia, Samsung and LG continued to top the popularity stakes, although Symbian’s downward spiral dented Nokia’s share.
The big winner was Apple which managed to pass Blackberry’s RIM during the quarter to claim position five. RIM managed to increase its share marginally but not enough to keep ahead of Apple.
| Mobile makers: Worldwide market share | ||
| Manufacturer | 3rd Quarter 2010 | 3rd Quarter 2009 |
| Nokia | 28.2% | 36.7% |
| Samsung | 17.2% | 19.6% |
| LG | 6.6% | 10.3% |
| Apple | 3.2% | 2.3% |
| RIM | 2.9% | 2.8% |
| Sony Ericsson | 2.5% | 4.3% |
| Motorola | 2.1% | 4.5% |
| HTC | 1.6% | 0.9% |
Looking ahead Gartner predicts that there will be a slowdown in device sales over the coming year. In particular they believe that the emerging tablet PC market will dent sales of smartphones as users choose between the two.
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