Samsung ousts Nokia from mobile top spot

Latest Gartner figures show a Samsung surge in mobile phones and smartphones as it surpasses both Nokia and Apple respectively

Global mobile phone shipments dropped two per cent for the first quarter of 2012, but Samsung is dominating the market, according to Gartner’s latest figures.

In total, mobile phone sales reached 419.1 million units in Q1, but the two per cent drop was the first time since Q2 2009 that the market exhibited a decline.

Samsung grabbed the top spot in the mobile handset space during the quarter with 20.7 per cent market share, ousting Nokia (19.8 per cent) which has held the number one position since 1998. Samsung’s sales reached 86.6 million units, a 25.9 per cent increase from last year.

The vendor also wrestled the number one smartphone place from rival Apple, selling 38 million smartphones worldwide, with its Android-based phones representing more than 40 per cent of Android-based smartphone sales worldwide. No other vendor achieved more than 10 per cent market share.

Smartphone sales continued to drive mobile device market growth, reaching 144.4 million units in Q1 2012, a 44.7 per cent year-on-year increase.

Top two smartphone vendors Apple and Samsung increased their combined market share to 49.3 per cent, up from 29.3 per cent in Q1 2011, compared with Nokia, which saw its smartphone market share drop to 9.2 per cent.

Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, said: “Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia-Pacific region. The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia, which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year.”

And the outlook for the rest of the year will remain cautious, the analyst warned.

Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner, said: “The lower results in the first quarter of 2012 have led us to be cautious about sales for the remainder of the year. The continued rollout of third-generation (3G)-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China.

“In addition, the arrival of new products in mature markets based on new versions of the Android and Windows Phone operating systems, and the launch of the Apple iPhone 5, will help drive a stronger second half in Western Europe and North America. However, as we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable,” she said.