Samsung and Apple are leading the mobile industry, but Nokia seems to have been pushed out of the top five race for the time being. This post is all about the 3rd quarter unit shipments, with Samsung leading with 56.3 million units, Apple is second on the list with 26.9 million units, third on the list is RIM with 7.7 million units, ZTE follows not far behind with 7.5 million units and finally completing the top five list is HTC with a close 7.3 million units.
This data from the IDC has gone to prove that Apple and Samsung are the big players in the smartphone market this quarter. Samsung’s performance seems to have improved with a sale of 56.3 million handsets, capturing a 31.3% share of the quarter as compared to the year earlier where it had managed to sell 28.1 million handsets, capturing a 22.7% share. It seems like Samsung may be on the way to giving Apple a run for their money as their shipments in the last quarter were double Apple’s sales. In the previous year Apple had managed to sell 17.1 million smartphones, thus capturing a 13.8% share for that quarter.
Research in Motion seems to be staggering with a fall from 9.6% market share to 4.3% market share; it has however managed to maintain the third spot and even though ZTE bagged the fourth position, it has a close market share of 4.2%. HTC has managed a 4% market share.
What is notable however is not who is on the top five list, but who isn’t- Nokia seems to be out of the top five race and with the company’s losses mounting up, the other major players are only gaining. According to Kevin Restivo, a senior research analyst with IDC, identified the transition of Nokia from Symbian to Windows Phone as an opportunity for competitors to gain market share.
The word however is that the market is still new and growing and that there is scope for multiple players and even for Nokia to redeem itself. Though the IDC has not disclosed Nokia’s sales this quarter, however, they have disclosed that Nokia’s sales in the last quarter were 82.9 million which is about 22% less than the 106.5 million handsets that they shipped in the third quarter of the previous year. All said and done, 179.7 million smartphones were shipped in the previous quarter, a 45% gain. About 444.4 million handsets were shipped this year, which is 2.4% greater than the 434.1 million handsets shipped in the previous year.
