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/v3-uk/news/1976123/apple-loses-ground-smartphone-market
23 Jul 2010, Dave Neal , V3
Apple is losing some of its hold on the smartphone market, according to new research from Strategy Analytics.
The market grew by 43 per cent in the past quarter, rising to 60 million handsets shipped.
Nokia has a 43 per cent share of the market, and sold 24 million handsets in the quarter. Meanwhile BlackBerry maker RIM is in second place with 18.8 per cent share, representing a slight fall for the firm.
Apple, which is in third place, seems to be suffering most, and has seen its share of the market fall from 15.9 per cent to 14.1 per cent, a slight drop, but a drop nonetheless.
"The honeymoon period for Apple in the mobile world is clearly coming to an end," wrote Strategy Analytics' global wireless practice director Neil Mawston in the report.
However, Apple is unlikely to be too concerned about this slight drop, on the back of reporting its highest ever financial quarter and iPhone sales of 8.4 million units, a 61 per cent increase over last year.
That leaves the rest of the pack, which includes Motorola, Samsung, HTC and Sony Ericsson, with a 26.7 per cent chunk of the action.
On the back of less than positive second quarter results this week, Nokia said that it is seeing growth in smartphone sales, in spite of stiff competition from other parties.
Nokia's chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said: "We ended the second quarter with several reasons to be optimistic about our future. For one, the global handset market has continued to grow at a healthy pace, led by some of the less mature markets where Nokia is strong.
"We are also encouraged by the solid second-quarter performance of our mobile phones business, helped by an improving line-up of affordable models."
Do you agree?
One of the dumbest articles ever
Comparing a quarter when a company that only provides a new product once a year has 3 days of new product and 87 days of the oldest product on the market is not very appropriate. It might be interesting to compare that ratio from last year's iPhone introductory quarter vs. last quarter basis to determine what might be expected in the next quarter based on how that worked out last year. Also, comparing smart phones that cost 1/4th as much as iPhones on a unit basis, while accurate, is not very enlightening. So, your facts are correct, but the impression you leave is very misleading.
Posted by mike Mount, 23 Jul 2010
uh...Huh?
I guess that dip would have nothing what so ever to do with all the press concerning a stolen prototype coming out a few months later right? I mean the knowledge of a REALLY cool new version in a month or two plastered all over and on CNN would have no impact on sales right?
Posted by NotTellinYou, 24 Jul 2010
lrd
OMG!
I looked at a Verizon Andriod phone this past week and it's like crap compared to an iPhone.
It's like comparing Windows 3.0 against Apple's System 7 from back in the mid to late 90s.
One looks great and does what you expect it to do and the other looks like a bunch of 3rd graders took up programming and tried to imitate the other.
Androids got a long way to go to catch up with Apple's iOS4.
Posted by lrd, 24 Jul 2010
Flawed Analysis - Seasonality ignored
If Strategy Analytics new their job, they would know the difference between quarterly change and seasonality.
For the last 3 years, every quarter just before Apple's once-yearly launch of a new model iPhone results in lower sales than the previous quarter. After the new model launches, iPhone sales sky-rocket as has already been demonstrated with the launch of the iPhone 4.
As a result the conclusion that the iPhone is somehow losing ground in the smartphone market is completely flawed, particularly since the enormous demand for the iPhone 4 this quarter is well documented.
The Gizmodo stolen iPhone debacle would have accentuated the lull as many held off waiting for new model to arrive in Q3.
So if we compare this quarter against the same quarter last year, well, well, what do you know Apple only sold 3.8 million in q2 2009 vs 8.4 million in Q2 2010, an increase in sales of 220% year over year.
In other words, the statement "The honeymoon period for Apple in the mobile world is clearly coming to an end," is absolute rubbish with no basis in fact.
-Mart
Posted by Martin Hill, 26 Jul 2010