Telecom Lead India: Smartphone market share performance report of top 5 players in Q1 2013 is out.
Smartphones outshipped feature phones for the first time in Q1 2013.
The worldwide mobile phone market rose 4 percent as vendors shipped 418.6 million mobile phones in Q1 compared to 402.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012 and 483.2 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, IDC said.
Smartphone vendors shipped 216.2 million units in Q1 2013, up 41.6 percent compared to the 152.7 million units shipped in Q2 2012, but 5.1 percent lower than the 227.8 million units shipped in Q4 2012.
ABI Research says smartphone shipments grew 38 percent while feature phone shipments declined 5.2 percent. Shipments of all handsets grew 12 percent in the first quarter.
Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC’s Mobile Phone team, said: As Nokia, BlackBerry and HTC are in various stages of transformation, Chinese vendors including Huawei and ZTE as well as Coolpad and Lenovo, have made significant strides to capture new users with their Android smartphones.
Smartphone Vendor Highlights
In Q1, Samsung shipped more units than the next four vendors combined. What remains to be seen is how Samsung’s new Tizen-powered smartphones will look and feel later this year, and fit into the company’s overall smartphone portfolio.
Apple’s smartphone shipment volume hit a new first-quarter high thanks in part to the iPhone 5, with volume growing 6.6 percent year over year. However, the last time the iPhone maker posted a single-digit year-over-year growth rate was Q3 2009. Apple’s mix of models shipped to market is increasingly diversified as it tries to reach new buyers.
LG returned to the smartphone Top 5 after a two-quarter absence, reaching record-high shipments in the process. Its smartphone volume for the quarter was driven in large part by its 3G smartphone portfolio — L series and the Nexus 4. LTE-enabled devices, including the Optimus G series, also contributed to its success. LG hopes to continue its upward trajectory with the launch of the F and L series targeting the mid-range and entry-level segments.
| Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2013 Q1 (Units in Millions) | |||||||||||||
| Vendor | 1Q13 Unit Shipments |
1Q13 Market Share |
1Q12 Unit Shipments |
1Q12 Market Share |
Year-over- year Change |
||||||||
| Samsung | 70.7 | 32.7 | % | 44.0 | 28.8 | % | 60.7 | % | |||||
| Apple | 37.4 | 17.3 | % | 35.1 | 23.0 | % | 6.6 | % | |||||
| LG | 10.3 | 4.8 | % | 4.9 | 3.2 | % | 110.2 | % | |||||
| Huawei | 9.9 | 4.6 | % | 5.1 | 3.3 | % | 94.1 | % | |||||
| ZTE | 9.1 | 4.2 | % | 6.1 | 4.0 | % | 49.2 | % | |||||
| Others | 78.8 | 36.4 | % | 57.5 | 37.7 | % | 37.0 | % | |||||
| Total | 216.2 | 100.0 | % | 152.7 | 100.0 | % | 41.6 | % | |||||
| Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, April 25, 2013 | |||||||||||||
| Note: Data are preliminary and subject to change. Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors. | |||||||||||||
Huawei has shown improvement as it offered Ascend smartphones and had more limited presence outside the Asia/Pacific region. Huawei decreased its dependence on rebranded feature phones while growing its Ascend portfolio to address multiple customer segments with more branded smartphone offerings. The company nearly doubled its unit shipments to regions outside of Asia/Pacific this past quarter when compared to Q1.
ZTE’s performance continued the trends established last year, with a strong showing in Asia/Pacific and North America, but a small presence in EMEA and Latin America. With a target of increasing smartphone revenue by 30 percent this year, ZTE will try to grow in North America and Europe. In China, where increasing price pressure has challenged vendors to grow profitably, ZTE will emphasize its higher-price products. In addition, ZTE will be among the first companies to launch a Firefox-powered smartphone this year.
