Nokia still previous to Apple in smartphone sales, in keeping with Gartner

Aug 11th 2011
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Nokia still previous to Apple in smartphone sales, in keeping with Gartner

Whoa there, Apple, we all know you’re beginning to feel pretty darn good about besting Nokia and Samsung for the title of world’s largest smartphone manufacturer , but hold on for only one minute. Gartner has a unique idea of ways the numbers game really works, and its interpretation makes all of the difference in determining who earns the title. Instead of measuring the variety of units each manufacturer ships out to the distributors (as IDC , ABI Research and Strategy Analytics do), Gartner gauges its numbers by what number devices were actually sold to finish users instead. Thus, Nokia still keeps its title — for another quarter, anyways. The firm is confident Espoo won’t be the pinnacle smartphone contender much longer, due to the company’s grim Q3 outlook because it continues to await the transition to Windows Phone. But hey, there’s always Q4 , right? Right? Inspect the entire press release after the break.

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Gartner Says Sales of Mobile Devices in Second Quarter of 2011 Grew 16.5 Percent Year-on-Year; Smartphone Sales Grew 74 Percent

ZTE Became Fifth-Largest Cell phone Manufacturer and RIM Dropped to No. 6
Egham, UK, August 11, 2011- ï’¿ ï’¿

Worldwide sales of mobile devices to finish users totaled 428.7 million units inside the second quarter of 2011, a 16.5 percent increase from the second one quarter of 2010, in accordance with Gartner, Inc.

The channel built up stock on the end of the primary quarter of 2011 in preparation of possible component shortages following the Japanese earthquake. For this reason, sell-popular slowed within the second quarter of 2011 to 421.1 million units, a 4.4 percent decrease from the former quarter.

Sales of smartphones were up 74 percent year-on-year and accounted for 25 percent of overall sales inside the second quarter of 2011, up from 17 percent within the second quarter of 2010.

“Smartphone sales continued to rise on the expense of feature phones,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Consumers in mature markets are choosing entry-level and midrange Android smartphones over feature phones, partly by using carriers’ and manufacturers’ promotions.” However, replacement sales in Western Europe showed signs of fatigue as smartphone sales declined quarter-on-quarter.

In smartphones, Nokia’s sales into the channel within the second quarter of 2011 were low. This was partly as a result of an exceptionally competitive market that deflated demand for Symbian, but in addition to inventory management issues in Europe and China particularly. The channel bought less and worked hard to minimize stock levels, partly by cutting prices on older products. These factors reduced Nokia’s average selling price for smartphones, in comparison to the primary quarter of 2011. “The sales efforts of the channel, combined with Nokia’s greater concentration in retail and distributors’ sales, saw Nokia destock greater than 9 million units overall and 5 million smartphones, helping it hold directly to its position because the leading smartphone manufacturer by volume,” said Ms. Cozza. “However, we won’t see a repeat of this performance inside the third quarter of 2011, as Nokia’s channel is pretty lean.”

Samsung achieved strong growth in sales of mobile devices. To illustrate, the Galaxy S II sold well, and this model went directly to chalk up 5 million sales by the tip of July. a robust performance within the smartphone market helped Samsung increase its market share, to become the third-largest smartphone vendor. However, its overall share dropped year-on-year, and grew only marginally quarter-on-quarter, mainly resulting from Samsung’s weaker presence in additional price-sensitive market segments.

Apple continued to exceed expectations, although the iPhone 4 will soon get replaced by a brand new model. Portion of its growth came from the 42 new carriers and 15 new countries that it entered within the second quarter of 2011, which brought its total coverage to 100 countries. This expansion caused its inventory to grow slightly by the tip of the second one quarter of 2011, when sales to finish users stood at 19.6 million units. In mainland China, Apple is the seventh-largest cellular telephone vendor and the third-largest smartphone vendor.

Research In Motion’s (RIM’s) share of the smartphone market declined to twelve percent within the second quarter of 2011, from 19 percent a year ago. Also, the corporate lost its No. 5 position within the worldwide ranking of mobile device vendors to ZTE. Demand for RIM’s devices within the second quarter was impaired by an aging portfolio and delays in shipping products. Within the coming quarters RIM must cope with increased competition to its messaging offering and manage a platform migration from BlackBerry 7 to QNX.

Google and Apple are the most obvious winners inside the smartphone ecosystem. The combined share of iOS and Android inside the smartphone operating system (OS) market doubled to just about 62 percent within the second quarter of 2011, up from just over 31 percent within the corresponding period of 2010. Gartner analysts observed that these two OSs have the usability that customers enjoy, the apps that customers feel they wish, and increasingly a portfolio of services delivered by the platform owner to boot.

“We predict manufacturers and distributors to stay cautious about raising their stock levels within the second half 2011, following the new uncertainty at the world financial markets,” said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner. Gartner expects sales of mobile devices to grow around 12 percent in 2011.

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