Telecom Lead India: Mobile phone sales declined 3.1 percent in Q3 2012 to 428 million units.

Samsung, Nokia, Apple, ZTE, LG Electronics, Huawei Device, TCL Communication, Research in Motion, Motorola and HTC are the top 10 phone vendors in Q3.

Gartner said smartphone sales accounted for 39.6 percent of total mobile phone sales, as smartphone sales increased 46.9 percent from the third quarter of 2011.

In China, sales of mobile phones grew driven by sales of smartphones, while demand of feature phones remained weak.

Smartphones fueled sales of mobile phones worldwide with sales rising to 169.2 million units in the third quarter of 2012. The smartphone market was dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Apple and Samsung together controlled 46.5 percent of smartphone market.

Nokia slipped from No. 3 in the second quarter of 2012 to No. 7 in smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2012.

RIM moved to the No. 3 spot with HTC not far behind, at No. 4.

Samsung sold almost 98 million units in the third quarter of 2012, up 18.6 percent. Out of this, 55 million was smartphones. It commanded 32.5 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2012.

Table 1

Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 3Q12 (Thousands of Units)

Company	3Q12 Units	3Q12 Market Share ( percent)	3Q11 Units	3Q11 Market Share ( percent)
Samsung	97,956.8	22.9	82,612.2	18.7
Nokia	82,300.6	19.2	105,353.5	23.9
Apple	23,550.3	5.5	17,295.3	3.9
ZTE	16,654.2	3.9	14,107.8	3.2
LG Electronics	13,968.8	3.3	21,014.6	4.8
Huawei Device	11,918.9	2.8	10,668.2	2.4
TCL Communication	9,326.7	2.2	9,004.7	2.0
Research in Motion	8,946.8	2.1	12,701.1	2.9
Motorola	8,562.7	2.0	11,182.7	2.5
HTC	8,428.6	2.0	12,099.9	2.7
Others	146,115.1	34.2	145,462.2	32.9
Total	427,729.5	100.0	441,502.2	100.0

Source: Gartner (November 2012)

 

Nokia’s mobile phone sales declined 21.9 percent. Nokia tumbled to the No. 7 worldwide position with 7.2 million smartphones sold in the third quarter.

Apple sold 23.6 million units, up 36.2 percent.

In the smartphone market, Android OS continued to increase its market share, up 19.9 percentage points in the third quarter of 2012.

RIM OS lost market share and climbed to the No. 3 position.

With the launch of iPhone 5, Gartner analysts expect iOS share will grow strongly in the fourth quarter of 2012 because users held on to their replacements in many markets ahead of the iPhone 5 wider roll out. Windows Phone’s share weakened year-on-year as the Windows Phone 8 launch dampened demand of Windows Phone 7 devices.

Table 2

Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q12 (Thousands of Units)

Operating System	3Q12 Units	3Q12 Market Share ( percent)	3Q11 Units	3Q11 Market Share ( percent)
Android	122,480.0	72.4	60,490.4	52.5
iOS	23,550.3	13.9	17,295.3	15.0
Research In Motion	8,946.8	5.3	12,701.1	11.0
Bada	5,054.7	3.0	2,478.5	2.2
Symbian	4,404.9	2.6	19,500.1	16.9
Microsoft	4,058.2	2.4	1,701.9	1.5
Others	683.7	0.4	1,018.1	0.9
Total	169,178.6	100.0	115,185.4	100.0

Source: Gartner (November 2012)

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