Nokia certainly faces stiff competition from other brands like Samsung, LG, Motorola and more who meticulously design elegant gizmos with incredible features and leading technologies. ABI Research now highlights that 100 million smartphones were shipped in Q1 2011. This underlines a 0.5 percent reduction over Q4 2010 shipments and a 75 percent increase over Q1 2010. The overall mobile phone market is expected to be 380 million devices, or a 2.5 percent decrease from Q4 2010 levels.
Nokia’s smartphone market share reduced to 25 percent in the Q1, down from 40 percent in the first quarter of 2010. Apple has benefited from an additional 2.2 million Verizon iPhones and strong performance throughout the Asia-Pacific holiday season with a 15 percent sequential gain in shipments. Samsung also enjoyed 16 percent sequential gain in Q1.
“Although seasonality is often cited as the cause of the shrinkage, Nokia’s 15% sequential decline acted as a drag on Q1’s anemic market growth,” commented senior analyst Michael Morgan.
HTC boasts of 7 percent growth and 9.5 million smartphones, while RIM remained fundamentally low with 2 percent sequential expansion, and Motorola Mobility shipments faced a 16 percent decline. The Android platform was installed in more than 30 million shipped smartphones in Q1. Moreover, Apple’s firm growth over the quarter stimulated iOS to improve from 16 percent market share to around 19 percent.
Reportedly, iOS may move Symbian from its new second position by the end of 2011.