Nokia Smartphone Marketshare Drops to 24 Percent from 39 Percent

Mainland China, South Korea and India delivered strong volumes and registered triple-digit growth to fuel an 83 percent growth in smartphone shipments to 101 million units in Q1 2011.

 

Android led the market for the second quarter running, and, with 35.7 million units shipped, increased its share to 35 percent, according to Canalys that released its worldwide country-level smart phone market data for Q1 2011.

 

Asia Pacific (APAC) became the largest smart phone market region, with year-on-year growth of 98 percent to 37.3 million units. APAC is ahead of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for the first time since Q3 2007. Overall, worldwide smart phone shipments grew 83 percent to 101.0 million units.

 

Nokia lost substantial market share in smartphone segment. Though its market share shrank from 39 percent a year ago to 24 percent in Q1 2011, Nokia held onto its worldwide leadership position with 24.2 million units shipped a 13 percent year-on-year rise. This is despite the current realignment of its platform strategy.

 

Nokia is staying ahead of RIM in EMEA and Apple in APAC. APAC became the largest region for Nokia, accounting for 53 percent of its overall shipments, overtaking EMEA by more than 3 million units.

 

Nokia is under considerable strain in the smart phone market as it transitions strategy, platforms and people”,  said Pete Cunningham, principal analyst at Canalys. Its worldwide reach, however, should never be underestimated. The vendor remains number one in 28 countries, including mainland China, where it grew 79 percent to 8.9 million units, thanks in part to Chinese New Year shipments”.

 

At a platform level, Android’s continued dominance was boosted by good performances by a number of key vendors. HTC,   Samsung,  LG,   Motorola and Sony Ericsson drove Android shipments in the first quarter, with each vendor shipping well over 3 million devices. Samsung also shipped nearly 3.5 million bada operating system-based smart phones, outperforming total shipments of Windows Phone devices by more than a million units.

 

Samsung’s own operating system development, combined with the branding and investment in its Wave smart phones at mid-tier prices, has led to good uptake in developed markets, such as France, the UK and Germany. This achievement shows that there is still room for multiple operating systems, and that vendors can benefit from maintaining control of device development to hit the right markets and price points.

 

Nokia, Apple,  RIM, Samsung and HTC were the top five global smart phone vendors, as in Q4 2010. Apple continued to make market share gains, reaching 19 percent. RIM’s share, however, dropped in Q1, as its portfolio awaited a refresh and the vendor focused on the PlayBook launch. Overtaking Motorola, LG moved into sixth place, with its Optimus series of Android smart phones doing well in all regions.

 

By TelecomLead.com Team

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