Smartphone sales surge by 74 percent, devouring mobile marketshare
Worldwide, Q2 2011 saw a whopping 429 million mobile device units sold (not just shipped), a 16.5 percent increase from the same quarter last year according to Gartner. Smartphones led the charge, surging 74 percent year-over-year, gobbling up marketshare and casting a shadow of extinction over feature phones (AKA "quick messaging" phones and dumb phones).
“Smartphone sales continued to rise at the expense of feature phones,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Consumers in mature markets are choosing entry-level and midrange Android smartphones over feature phones, partly due to carriers’ and manufacturers’ promotions." However, replacement sales in Western Europe showed signs of fatigue as smartphone sales declined quarter-on-quarter.
Nokia sales plunged and marketshare fell off a cliff, but still managed to cling to top spot in worldwide market share with 22.8%. LG and Samsung notched 3rd and 4th spots, while Apple's powerful growth pushed 5% of global marketshare. RIM's marketshare dipped, causing the Waterloo BlackBerry maker to slip to 6th spot.
Apple continued to exceed expectations, even with its newest smartphone, the iPhone 4, now over a year oldl. But it added 42 new carriers and 15 new countries in the second quarter of 2011, which brought its total coverage to 100 countries.
Research In Motion’s share of the smartphone market declined to 12 percent in the second quarter of 2011, from 19 percent a year ago. The company lost its Number 5 position in the worldwide ranking of mobile device vendors to ZTE.
“We expect manufacturers and distributors to remain cautious about raising their stock levels in the second half of 2011, following the recent uncertainty on the world financial markets,” said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner. Gartner expects sales of mobile devices to grow around 12 percent in 2011.
