Nokia’s loss is Apple’s gain in the toughening smartphone market this quarter
May 3, 2011
One hundred million Nokia smartphones were shipped in the first quarter of 2011, marking a five percent reduction from the previous quarter for
the company
to chew on.
ABI Research estimates the overall handset market is currently 380 million devices, or a 2.5 percent reduction from levels in the fourth quarter of 2010.
“Although seasonality is often cited as the cause of the shrinkage, Nokia’s 15 percent sequential decline was a drag on this quarter’s market growth,” says Senior Analyst Michael Morgan.
Nokia’s smartphone market share dropped to 25 percent in the first quarter, down from 40 percent in the first quarter of 2010.
While Nokia remains positive about its strategic shift to the Windows Phone 7 platform, ABI Research argues its losses will accelerate through 2011.
Apple has benefited from an extra 2.2 million Verizon iPhones and strong performance during the Asia-Pacific holiday season with a 15 percent sequential gain in shipments.
Samsung smartphones also performed well in Q1 showing 16 percent sequential gain, which lifted it to 13 percent of total smartphone shipments.
The increased shipments from Samsung and Apple roughly equal the
drop in shipments from Nokia.
HTC delivered solid 7 percent growth and 9.5 million smartphones, while RIM remained essentially flat with 2 percent sequential growth. Motorola Mobility shipments experienced a 16 percent
decline.
“The factors that muted growth in Q1 are expected to continue through Q2 of 2011 and overall smartphone market growth is not expected to achieve 2010 levels until the second half of the year,” Pactice Director Kevin Burden says.
The Android platform was installed in more than 30 million shipped smartphones in Q1, to take first place away from historic platform leader Symbian which was delivered in 25.6 million smartphones over the same period.
Apple’s strong growth over the quarter moved iOS from 16 percent market share to almost 19 percent and a solid third place.
According to Apple VP of forecasting Jake Saunders, the recent trends suggest iOS could displace Symbian from its new second position by the end of 2011.