Smartphones keep mobile phone market crown

IDC's fourth-quarter 2010 European Mobile Phone Tracker report shows a 99 per cent growth in shipments over Q4 2009

Smartphones continue to dominate the Western European mobile phone market, according to IDC’s latest European Mobile Phone Tracker.

Fourth-quarter 2010 figures reveal total mobile phone market growth of 3.2 per cent year-on-year to 58.7 million units, but smartphone shipments increased to 25.6 million units – a whopping 99.4 per cent higher than Q4 2009, representing 44 per cent of total shipments.

Devices based on the Android operating system grew 1,508 per cent year-on-year to 7.9 million units, from 470,000 units a year ago, the iOS grew 66 per cent in the quarter as more operators launched the iPhone4. Microsoft’s Windows 7 phone also saw a change in fortune and grew 18 per cent year-on-year, and 100 per cent sequentially.

Nokia clung onto the top spot in the Western European market (both smartphones and feature phones), with 19.6 per cent market share. Samsung came in second with 15.6 per cent, followed by Apple at 5.2 per cent, Sony Ericsson at 4.2 per cent and Research in Motion (RIM) at 3.8 per cent.

Nokia also topped the smartphone leaderboard with seven million units sold and 27 per cent market share, but hot on its heels was Apple with 5.2 million units sold and 20 per cent market share. Research in Motion (RIM) sold 3.8 million units and grabbed 15 per cent of the market.

In fourth place was HTC with 3.2 million units sold and 13 per cent of the market and in fifth place was Sony Ericsson, shipping 2.2 million units with nine per cent of the market.

However in terms of smartphone market growth, Sony Ericsson topped the board with a massive 3,121 per cent, HTC saw 284 per cent growth and RIM and Apple saw a more conservative 67 per cent and 66 per cent growth respectively. Lagging behind in the growth stakes was Nokia with just 19 per cent growth.

Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager at IDC, said: “The last quarter of 2010 clearly shows the trends for the coming years in Western Europe. The Western European mobile phone market will be dominated by smartphones, and Android will be the king of the hill. Android surged from four per cent to 31 per cent market share in less than a year to become the market leader in 4Q10 and the fastest growing operating system ever"

IDC estimates that Android will grow at a 37 per cent compound annual growth rate between 2010 and 2015 in Western Europe, overtaking the overall market growth in the period and that of its direct competitor, the iOS from Apple.

"The recent alliance announced between Nokia and Microsoft will create opportunities for other operating systems to exploit the transition period between Symbian and Windows Phone 7. Android and iOS will fiercely compete to attract all current Symbian users as they will need to migrate to another platform in the future,” Jeronimo added.