At 24.5 percent market share, Nokia is still in front of Samsung, at least this is what the Q2 2011 numbers from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker show.
Although still at the top of the market, Nokia has seen its market share dropping at an accelerated rate, and might soon lose the first position to Samsung if things remain on this direction.
Apparently, sales of dual-SIM handsets from the company have been picking up steam, with over 2.6 million of them sold in the second quarter along, yet smartphone shipments are going down fast.
“Over the long term, Nokia's smartphone fortunes will be dictated by its ability to sell Windows Phone 7 smartphone devices, which are expected to hit the market this year. It is Nokia's primary smartphone platform of the future,” IDC notes.
“In the meantime, Nokia is trying to sustain shipment volume with low-cost mobile phones and devices powered by the aging Symbian smartphone platform.”
Samsung registered double-digit growth in the time frame. The company has enjoyed great sales of its Galaxy smartphones, and is now less than 20 million phones away from becoming the top mobile phone maker in the world.
LG ended the quarter on the third position, though it was affected by slow smartphone releases and a decline in sales of feature phones. However, the company might soon lose its position to Apple, who registered triple-digit growth in Q2, and managed to double its market share since last year.
Also in the top five vendors was ZTE, who launched a series of affordable Android-based smartphones and is gearing up for the launch of others more.
During the time frame, the mobile phone market went up by 11.3 percent when compared to the same time frame a year ago, yet the feature phone segment went down by 4 percent, the first quarter it shrinks since 3Q09.
The decline in shipments of feature phones was prominent in economically mature regions, including the United States, Japan, and Western Europe, where users moved to smartphones.
“The shrinking feature phone market is having the greatest impact on some of the world's largest suppliers of mobile phones,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.
“Stalwarts such as Nokia are losing share in the feature phone category to low-cost suppliers such as Micromax, TCL-Alcatel, and Huawei.”
The search firm notes that 365.4 million handsets were shipped in the second quarter of the ongoing year, compared to the 328.4 million units shipped in the quarter a year ago.
However, the market growth was slower than in the first quarter of the year, when it went up by 16.8 percent, and also lower than what IDC has previously provisioned.
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