A recent study by the well-known market research firm, IDC, has revealed that the smartphone market grew by a whopping 42.1% in the second quarter of 2012 with Samsung in the lead with sales amounting to 50.2 million and Apple coming in second, having sold 26 million devices after it fell short of the 35 million forecast. The next highest sales are by Nokia, HTC and ZTE. Samsung and Apple are sharing the market stronghold between themselves, but they have quite different approaches to the smartphone industry. While Samsung markets multiple devices across a varying price range, Apple sells only a few high earning products. IDC went on to predict that thanks to the geographic spread of both companies, they are going to compete further as they search for more avenues.
The second quarter of the year saw Apple sales fall below expectations probably because of the speculation surrounding the release of the next version of the iPhone. This would have put off customers from buying the current model which would get outdated soon. On the other hand, Samsung’s sales have increased by a significant margin as it used the product release cycle of Apple to its advantage and recently released the Galaxy SIII, its most advanced device yet. Moreover, the success of the Galaxy Note, the hybrid between a phone and a tablet has further boosted Samsung’s sales.
IDC says that the low sales of Apple are as predicted but the actual number might have been a little disappointing. Normally, for a company that is expected to have a slow quarter, such a figure is acceptable but considering that it is Apple, the expectations are always high. However, despite the decline in iPhone sales, Apple had significant success in the tablet division where the iPad is considered the most successful tablet of all time.
Trends in Nokia continued to vary and the company appears to be in a transition state as the demand for its traditional Symbian and MeeGo phones fell. Though Nokia’s shipment of its Windows Phone lineup doubled, the market presence is still quite low. It appears that the company has a long way to go and a lot of work to do before it can regain its long lost glory. If Nokia manages to get everything back on track, it might even see competition from HTC soon enough.
