IDC: Apple, Samsung and HTC Drive Global Smartphone Growth
Market research firm IDC has released its latest report on the worldwide cell phone market for the first quarter of 2011, and once again, the smartphone segment saw strong growth in terms of shipments. Nokia maintained its lead with the largest global shipment volume. However, Apple, Samsung and HTC were the main driving forces behind the global increase.
During the first quarter of this year, a total of 99.6 million smartphones (out of 372 million overall cell phones) were shipped, up 79.7% from the 55.4 million units in the year-ago quarter. IDC attributed the fast growth to a few favorable conditions in the smartphone industry: vendors' increasing emphasize on smartphones, a wider selection of mid-range and entry-level offerings, the lowering prices of high-end devices, and last but not least, the continuously strong demand from customers.
According to IDC's report, Nokia is still the world's no.1 smartphone manufacturer, capturing a 24.3 percent market share by shipping 24.2 million units in the first quarter. However, the company has lost 14.5 percentage points of share to other vendors over the year, highlighting the growing threat it is facing. IDC noted that Nokia "may find itself in danger of ceding market share" as it moves from Symbian to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform as its main smartphone platform.
Closing in on Nokia is Apple, who accounted for 18.7 percent of the market by selling 18.7 million iPhones during the three-month period, showing impressive growth when compared to the 8.7 million unit shipments in the same quarter a year ago. IDC believed that future growth will be mainly contributed by the CDMA version of the device.
With Apple climbing up the stairs, Research in Motion, the former runner-up, dropped to the third spot with a 14 percent market share. Although the BlackBerry maker saw steady increase in shipments from 10.6 million units to 13.9 million units, like Nokia, its share has declined over the past year.
Samsung and HTC, holding the fourth and the fifth positions respectively, are the two companies with the most momentum. Thanks to its Android-based Galaxy lineup, the Korean handset maker posted a tremendous gain in market share, jumping from 4.3 percent to 10.8 percent. Its smartphone sales amounted to 10.8 million units, up 350 percent from the 2.4 million units in the year-ago period. HTC, with 8.9 percent of market share, grew nearly 230% year-over-year in shipment volume from 2.7 million units to 8.9 million units.
As Android manufacturers, led by Samsung and HTC, as well as Apple continue to grow in leaps and bounds while Nokia is undergoing a tough transition period, the balance of power in the global smartphone field will very likely continue to shift in the next quarter.
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