Mobile market fuelled by smartphone demand
Latest Q2 figures from Gartner show a 50 per cent increase in smartphone sales to end users
What's App? Demand for Smarthphones such as Apple's iPhone have caused a 50 per cent leap in sales for Q2
Demand for mobile devices has continued to increase, with Smartphone sales doubling in a year, according to Gartner's latest figures.
The analyst revealed second quarter 2010 sales of 325.6 million units globally, with Smartphone sales accounting for 19 per cent of global mobile device sales.
Nokia continued to dominate the global market with 34.1 per cent market share or 111.5 million units in Q2, followed by Samsung with 20.1 per cent share and 63.5 million devices sold.
LG was third in the table with nine per cent market share, RIM and Sony Ericsson were joint fourth with 3.4 per cent and Motorola fifth with 2.8 per cent.
Apple was just behind with 2.7 per cent share and 8.7 million devices sold, with top-ten newcomer HTC breathing on its heels with 1.8 per cent of the market, translating into 139.1 per cent growth year on year, largely due to Android take up.
Gartner said Apple’s sales would have been higher if it had not had to face tight inventory management in the run-up to the iPhone 4 launch in Q2, and because of ‘supply constraint’ on its new device.
Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner, said: “Although the mobile communication devices market showed double-digit growth this quarter, average selling prices (ASPs) were lower than expected and margins fell.
“We attribute the decline in ASPs to a stronger dollar, a depreciating euro, and intense competition that drove price adjustments and changes to the product mix,” she said.
Sales also failed to be dented by the launch of tablet devices such as Apple’s iPad.
“Crucially, as we predicted, the sudden growth in media tablets, such as the Apple iPad, did not appear to hold back smartphone sales," added Milanese. "We believe that most tablet users still feel the need for a truly pocketable, yet highly capable, device for those situations when it is inconvenient to carry a device with a larger form factor.”
In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Symbian dominates with 41.2 per cent share of the market or 25.38 million units sold. Nearest competitor RIM held 18.2 per cent share in Q2, or 11.2 million units.
But the Android OS leapfrogged Apple’s iPhone OS, to steal third place with 17.2 per cent share of the market, with Apple in fourth place at 14.2 per cent market share. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS completed the top five with five per cent share.
Milanesi said the mobile OS market will continue to change as more multi-platform devices were launched.
“A non-exclusive strategy that produces products selling across many communication service providers (CSPs) and the backing of so many device manufacturers, which are bringing more attractive devices to market at several different price points, were among the factors that yielded its growth this quarter,” she said.
“Launches of updated operating systems will help maintain strong growth in smartphones in the second half of 2010 and spur innovation,” added Milanesi. ”But we believe market share in the OS space will consolidate around a few key OS providers that have the most support from CSPs and developers, and strong brand awareness with consumers and enterprise customers.”