"the Apple iPad, did not appear to hold back smartphone sales." Carolina Milanesi, Gartner
According to new figures from Gartner, mobile sales and smartphones sales continue to grow in the second quarter of 2010.
Gartner’s latest figures show smartphone sales to end users accounted for 19% of worldwide mobile device sales, an increase of 50.5% from the second quarter of 2009, while worldwide mobile sales to end users totaled 325.6 million units in the second quarter of 2010, a 13.8% increase from the same period in 2009.
In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android expanded rapidly in the second quarter of 2010, overtaking Apple’s iPhone OS to become the third-most-popular OS in the world (see Table 1). In the US, it also overtook RIM’s OS to become the No. 1 smartphone OS in this region.
Smartphone sales to end users totaled 61.6 million units in the second quarter of 2010, a 50.5% increase from the same period in 2009. The top four smartphone OS vendors exhibited growth in the second quarter of 2010, and accounted for 91% of the worldwide smartphone OS market, up 6% year-on-year.
Table 1
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2Q10 (Thousands of Units)
| Company | 2Q10
Units |
2Q10 Market Share (%) | 2Q09
Units |
2Q09 Market Share (%) |
| Symbian | 25,386.8 | 41.2 | 20,880.8 | 51.0 |
| Research In Motion | 11,228.8 | 18.2 | 7,782.2 | 19.0 |
| Android | 10,606.1 | 17.2 | 755.9 | 1.8 |
| iOS | 8,743.0 | 14.2 | 5,325.0 | 13.0 |
| Microsoft Windows Mobile | 3,096.4 | 5.0 | 3,829.7 | 9.3 |
| Linux | 1,503.1 | 2.4 | 1,901.1 | 4.6 |
| Other OSs | 1,084.8 | 1.8 | 497.1 | 1.2 |
| Total | 61,649.1 | 100.0 | 40,971.8 | 100.0 |
Source: Gartner (August 2010)
Gartner said CSPs will increasingly offer more affordable tiered data plans to users. Tiered data plans will make smartphones more accessible to different market segments and help make smartphones the dominant device category in mature markets. This means that total cost of ownership will be lower, and new users will face less of a barrier to entry.
Manufacturer Tables
The second quarter also saw some movement in the top 10 mobile device manufacturer rankings (see Table 2). HTC made its debut in the top 10 worldwide ranking, holding the No. 8 position with 139.1% growth year-on-year. This reflects the popularity of its Android portfolio but also a more aggressive branding strategy compared to the same period in 2009. “Crucially, as we predicted, the sudden growth in media tablets, such as the Apple iPad, did not appear to hold back smartphone sales. We believe that most tablet users still feel the need for a truly pocketable, yet highly capable, device for those situations when it’s inconvenient to carry a device with a larger form factor,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.
Table 2
Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users in 2Q10 (Thousands of Units)
| Company | 2Q10
Units |
2Q10 Market Share (%) | 2Q09
Units |
2Q09 Market Share (%) |
| Nokia | 111,473.8 | 34.2 | 105,413.4 | 36.8 |
| Samsung | 65,328.2 | 20.1 | 55,430.1 | 19.3 |
| LG | 29,366.7 | 9.0 | 30,497.0 | 10.7 |
| Research In Motion | 11,228.8 | 3.4 | 7,678.9 | 2.7 |
| Sony Ericsson | 11,008.5 | 3.4 | 13,574.3 | 4.7 |
| Motorola | 9,109.4 | 2.8 | 15,947.8 | 5.6 |
| Apple | 8,743.0 | 2.7 | 5,434.7 | 1.9 |
| HTC | 5,908.8 | 1.8 | 2,471.0 | 0.9 |
| ZTE | 5,545.8 | 1.7 | 3,697.9 | 1.3 |
| G’Five | 5,208.6 | 1.6 | NA | NA |
| Others | 62,635.2 | 19.30 | 45,977.2 | 16.1 |
| Total | 325,556.8 | 100.0 | 286,122.3 | 100.0 |
Source: Gartner (August 2010)
In the second quarter of 2010, Nokia’s mobile device sales to end users reached 111.5 million units and a share of 34.2%. Nokia’s economies of sales and excellent distribution enabled it to hold onto the top spot in the mobile device market.
Second in the table are Samsung who sold 65.3 million devices in the second quarter of 2010 that translated into a 20.1% market share. Although Samsung’s sales were strong in developing markets, its shift in product mix caused an overall decline in ASP. The next quarters will be interesting as Samsung will be one of the first manufacturers to bring Windows Phone 7 devices to market, in addition it’s own heavily marketed Wave and it’s own bada platform should start to have some affect on sales.
Research In Motion (RIM)’s mobile device sales to end users reached 11.2 million units in the second quarter of 2010, confirming RIM’s position as the fourth largest brand with a share of 3.4% this quarter.
Apple’s mobile device sales reached 8.7 million units or a 2.7% share of the overall mobile device market, but a 14.2% of the smartphone market. Apple maintained its No. 7 position in the worldwide mobile device market and held the No. 3 position in the worldwide smartphone market. Apple’s sales would have been higher if it had not had to face tight inventory management in preparation for the arrival of the iPhone 4 at the end of the second quarter of 2010.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by marcus austin, marcus austin. marcus austin said: Smartphone sales accounted for 19% of worldwide mobile device sales in Q2 2010 http://ow.ly/2oRPG [...]