Canalys: HTC nips Apple, Samsung to become top smartphone vendor in US for Q3 2011

- A stellar performance from Samsung sees it become the world’s primary vendor
Palo Alto, Shanghai, Singapore and Reading (UK) – Monday, 31 October 2011

Canalys today released its Q3 2011 country-level smart phone shipment estimates to clients, revealing that HTC has taken the pinnacle spot within the US market. Concurrently, an especially strong performance from Samsung saw it become the world’s primary smart phone vendor. Overall, the global market grew substantially: 49% year-on-year to 120.4 million units.

With phenomenal year-on-year and sequential growth of 252% and 60% respectively, Samsung shipped 27.3 million smart phones under its own brand to capture a 23% share, becoming the #1 vendor in APAC, Western Europe and Latin America, earlier than Nokia, Apple and RIM respectively. With well-regarded products, inclusive of the Galaxy S II, and demanding marketing campaigns, the seller registered the second one highest quarterly shipment total inside the market’s history, behind only Nokia’s Q4 2010 performance. As well as, Samsung shipped an estimated 500,000 units worldwide under the Google and T-Mobile brands.

Inside the U.s., the world’s largest smart phone market, HTC shone in Q3 2011, edging out Apple and Samsung to become the leading vendor. HTC shipped 5.7 million smart phones within the US under its own brand, giving it almost 1 / 4 of the market, in addition to an estimated 70,000 units under the T-Mobile brand. ‘However you count it, HTC has become a deserved leader within the US smart phone market,’ said Palo Alto-based Canalys Vp and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones. ‘This is an amazing achievement for HTC, which has built a premium brand in a highly competitive market in only about a short years. It now has a powerful range of 4G Android products, with devices ranged by all the major carriers, and gives a number of the most compelling and differentiated products found at the platform today.’

Samsung pushed Apple into third place inside the US market, with shipments of its own-brand devices reaching 4.9 million units. Apple’s US smart phone shipments totaled 4.6 million within the quarter and it was affected around the globe by consumers looking ahead to the launch of a higher-generation iPhone.

‘Apple didn’t stir the standard excitement levels within the industry with the announcement of the iPhone 4S, but that was never more likely to dampen volumes, resulting from pent up demand from the later than expected launch and the addition of Sprint as a 3rd carrier,’ said Jones. ‘Early iPhone 4S sales have shown here’s the case, and we predict to look a sturdy Q4 for Apple.’

‘Next week marks both-year anniversary of Verizon Wireless’s DROID launch, the tremendously successful family of Android-based smart phones within the Us of a,’ said Jones. ‘Customers who bought early will see their loyalty tested within the coming weeks as their contracts come to an end.’

After a slow start in 2010, AT&T has over-delivered at the selection of Android devices it promised to launch in 2011, including the Impulse 4G, supplied by Huawei but AT&T-branded, sold at an aggressive $30 with a freelance to focus on first-time smart phone buyers. Android holds nearly 70% of the platform share inside the Usa, compared with 57% worldwide.

RIM had another tough quarter in its largest market, where its volumes declined 58% from a year ago and its US market share slipped from 24% in Q3 2010 to simply 9% in Q3 2011. It continues to stand unfavorable press there and its volumes have dropped significantly despite a refreshed product line that incorporates its flagship BlackBerry Bold 9900.

‘RIM’s market share has fallen below 10% for the 1st time, and the present outlook for it within the US is definitely bleak,’ said UK-based Canalys Senior Analyst, Tim Shepherd. ‘While Apple can for now escape with not having a 4G smart phone, no other vendor within the US can. RIM must deliver a competitive high-end 4G smart phone in early 2012.’

‘The picture for RIM in other parts of the area is obviously more positive. It grew 59% in EMEA and 56% in APAC over a year ago, largely driven by the ongoing approval for BBM, its BlackBerry Messenger service. The center East and Africa and Southeast Asia were particular bright spots, and while October’s outage, interested in EMEA particularly, has hurt RIM’s reputation for reliability we don’t expect it to have a considerable impact and expect an honest Q4 performance there.’

‘But undoubtedly RIM must deliver new, fresh, exciting products to the market and increase its pace of innovation and execution whether it is going to have any chance of reasserting its position in North America. It badly must deliver on its potential with its new BBX platform,’ said Shepherd.

Canalys’ research also revealed huge growth within the smart phone market in mainland China, where shipments in Q3 2011 increased by an outstanding 160% on a year ago to 23.2 million units. While maintaining very high growth potential, just over 200,000 fewer smart phones shipped in China than within the Usa, leaving it a hair’s breadth far from being the world’s largest smart phone market.

‘The Chinese smart phone market is seeing explosive growth, not least from domestic vendors Huawei and ZTE,’ said Shanghai-based Canalys Research Director for China, Nicole Peng. ‘Both vendors are delivering good-quality, attractive smart phones at the Android platform for both the domestic and foreign markets, and their aggressive pricing strategies are enabling them to ship large volumes. They are going to stay an increasingly disruptive force within the global market within the coming quarters.’

Nokia retained its lead within the Chinese smart phone market, though echoing an image seen world wide, it lost significant ground. Its share declined from 75% in Q3 2010 to twenty-eight% in Q3 2011.

‘Nokia has several tough quarters still just before it, even in its traditionally strong markets in APAC, akin to China,’ said Peng. ‘The recent announcement of its first two Windows Phone devices, however, gives cause for some optimism, and shows that Nokia can still produce innovative and well-designed products. While China will never be on Nokia’s initial list of launch countries for its Lumia products, Canalys understands that the market is a key priority for the seller and expects to work out Nokia Windows Phone devices there within the first half 2012.’

Apple and Samsung also grew significantly in China this quarter, each enjoying growth of 710% and 805% year-on-year respectively.
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