In the last quarter, IDC had reported a 14.5 percent growth in the mobile phone industry world over. However the latest third quarter IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker summarizes a 14.6 percent growth in the worldwide mobile phone market. It elucidates that 340.5 million units were shipped by vendors in 3Q10 as compared to the 297.1 million units in last year’s third quarter.
A trend spotted in this quarter has been the growing demand for smartphones or converged mobile devices. This has been backed by the manifestation of a second smartphone-only vendor coming up in the top five ranking. Apple has climbed up to position of number four in 3Q10 joining RIM as one of the world’s largest handset suppliers. From the past three quarters, RIM has made it to IDC’s leaderboard. In fact both these companies are said to post the highest-growth rate among the top five vendors in the previous quarter.
“The entrance of Apple to the top 5 vendor ranking underscores the increased importance of smartphones to the overall market. Moreover, the mobile phone makers that are delivering popular smartphone models are among the fastest growing firms,” stated Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker. “Vendors that aren’t developing a strong portfolio of smartphones will be challenged to maintain and grow market share in the future.”
Although Nokia has managed to hold onto its position of the overall market leader in this sector, Apple, RIM, and other handset manufacturers producing Android- powered smartphones have been quick to eat from its share of pie. IDC predicts that by the end of 2014 the worldwide mobile phone market will be largely mobilized by the advent of smartphones.
“Nokia still leads all vendors by a significant margin for converged mobile devices and mobile phones as a whole,” elucidated Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. “However, Nokia’s grip on the traditional mobile phone market has been somewhat loosened, as multiple Chinese vendors have gained ground, especially within emerging markets. To bolster its overall competitiveness, Nokia has been focused on improving its smartphone offerings.”
“The smartphone is becoming the focal point of the personal communications experience,” explained Restivo. “As a result, new market growth will be increasingly generated by smartphones. This year, we are expecting the smartphone sub-market to grow 55% year over year.”
IDC has further analyzed the industry on the basis of regions. The report notes that Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) has seen several upcoming brands like Micromax, Nexian, and i-Mobile decrementing Nokia’s position as the market leader. Coming to Western Europe, it states that market growth is largely owed to smartphones especially the iPhone 4 and Android-based devices from HTC and Samsung. The United States mobile phone market saw a major growth in the smartphone market. The highlights of the sector were RIM’s BlackBerry Torch 9800, the Apple iPhone 4, Motorola’s Droid X and Droid 2 along with Samsung’s Galaxy S handsets.
The top five mobile vendors in the third quarter this year are Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, Apple and Research In Motion. Astonishingly, even after varied innovations Sony Ericsson slipped out of the Top 5 list this being the first time since the Tracker was initiated in 2004.