IDC: Smartphone sales up by 80%, Nokia still growing
In follow up of our article about the entire mobile phones sales past quarter we can now also see the numbers for the smartphone market. Like expected, the total shipped volume grew by a staggering 80% once again proving that smartphones are becoming exepted.
In just a year time we can see just how popular smartphones have become. In 2010 there were 55 million handsets shipped, this year however there have been shipped nearly a 100 million units in the first 3 months of the year.
Biggest winner in the smartphone division is Samsung with an increase of 350% YoY closely followed by HTC that saw their shipments increase by over 200%.
Nokia, despite their February 11th announcement managed to ship just under 3 million units more.Which is impressive considering Nokia didn’t have any real new devices out in the market apart from the E7. Symbian is still showing it’s strength in the market.
| Vendor |
1Q11 |
1Q11 Market |
1Q10 |
1Q10 Market |
1Q11/1Q10 |
|||||
| Nokia | 24.2 | 24.3% | 21.5 | 38.8% | 12.6% | |||||
| Apple | 18.7 | 18.7% | 8.7 | 15.7% | 114.4% | |||||
| Research In Motion | 13.9 | 14.0% | 10.6 | 19.1% | 31.1% | |||||
| Samsung | 10.8 | 10.8% | 2.4 | 4.3% | 350.0% | |||||
| HTC | 8.9 | 8.9% | 2.7 | 4.9% | 229.6% | |||||
| Others | 23.2 | 23.2% | 9.5 | 17.1% | 143.7% | |||||
| Total | 99.6 | 100.0% | 55.4 | 100.0% | 79.7% |
Numbers by: IDC
Eventhough Nokia/Symbian did do a good job, it is somewhat visible through the sales of Samsung and HTC that Android is catching up but not fully there yet. Ofcourse these numbers can’t verify Android’s growth since it considers manufacturers share rather than OS share HTC’s and Samsungs growth can be primarily contributed to Android powered devices.
But still even combining their entire sales doesn’t top Nokia’s massive 24% share illustrating just how big Nokia actually is.
IDC is also mentioning an interesting thing: The smartphone market is far from saturated, there is still room for smaller players. That could be manufacturers or an OS, so MeeGo might have a chance then with LG, or WP has a chance with Nokia?
Category: Nokia
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if nokia don’t release a top device, can fall down on the list…
From what i understand, if nokia doesnt recover by next year apple could quite possibly and likely cell more smartphones that nokia will. That is absolutely sad.
If WP7 Nokia, nokia will be the next motorola because their brand image has been more or less eroded in the consumers mind. One more year will be detrimental to their reputation.
I cant wait to see what happens
“Eventhough Nokia/Symbian did do a good job, it is visible that Android is catching up but not fully there yet. Combining Samsung and HTC doesn’t top Nokia’s massive 24% market share illustrating just how big Nokia actually is.”
It’s impossible to determine Android’s smart phone market share based on these statistics as the manufacturer-specific figures include all smartphone operating systems.
The category “Others” contains companies like LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, ZTE & Huawei.
Correct, made a small correction in the text so to not imply that. But you can draw a sort of conclusion from HTC and Samsung’s sales that Android is growing since it’s the main OS for both manufacturers when it comes to smartphones.
Sammy overtakes Nokia in Europe, it’s home turf.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/05/samsung-europe-idUSLDE7442BP20110505
Damn why is elop doing this and i didn’t notice they lost that much market share
You blame Elop for S^3 sucking and the S^3 hardware being a generation behind their peers??
I don’t understand
Even though S^3 is a generation behind in terms of CPU, its GPU integration is very advanced..
The point deep space bar is trying to make is that if the announcement of Symbian’s death wasn’t made on Feb11, they would have definitely sold more devices..
Also, Selling more devices that any other COMPANY inspite of having a sucky OS and hardware (according to you) is actually says the strength of Nokia and Symbian.
That also says the weakness of WP which sold a rumored 674000 units in the last quater inspite having a on-par hardware and modern OS..
OK, the 674,000 WinPho phones sold is from Eldar. But it can’t be much more than that.
Compare that to the above chart with 24.2 million Symbian (Nokia) phones sold. That’s 36 times as many Symbian phones.
And you say S^3 sucks! Enough said…
I never said Symbian sucks.. I have been using symbian devices since the good old 6600.
I also have a HTC Mozart which I haven’t used much because of its lack of features.. I love the UI though..
I currently use a E7. Even though its little slow, the things it can do and its awesome keyboard makes up for the lack of speed..
I don’t think Feb 11 has had any major impact on Symbian sales.
Mostly, the low sales are due to a lack of new devices. There wasn’t anything compelling from Nokia in Q1 ’11.
And that WP sales number, I’ll get into that later. You already say it; rumoured units sold. And besides that, there is more to it than that.
The reason for the number getting more coverage is because MS didn’t give out the number of WP licences sold during last quarter.. They did that the quarter before last. The absence of that figure in the last quarter report says something isn;t good.
The lack of devices is a part of the slowdown. But the Feb11 announcement has indeed had effect. The Japanese Mobile industry saying that they are looking to move away from Symbian immediately after that announcement.. Lots of main stream media carrying out the news in major Nokia market has indeed had an effect on it..
Oh dear Andre, you’re such a little WinPho fanboy. Comments like this just prove it. You’ve fallen into the classic Gizmodo-Engadget-American viewpoint of Nokia and Symbian, and your blind love for homegrown American tech. Sad, sad, sad.
S^3 doesn’t even begin to suck. The UI lags a little bit more than it should for some operations. Other than that it is WAY more advanced than any other mobile OS out there. And you know full well why latest Nokia hardware is less powerful than it’s competitors, because it doesn’t need to be. WinPho and Android (etc) NEED Ghz+ processors because the OSes are so inefficient and engineered like bloated desktop OSes.
You’re such a little troll Andre and it’s a shame you’re allowed to write for this site.
Agree.
Ninja,
Jay might just allow your postings here, and I’m willing to do the same. But calling writers for this blog all sorts of things ranging from the above troll to ignorant and worse than that is disrespectful.
We are all entitled to an opinion you included, but please refrain yourself from calling people things. That’s unneccesary and immature.
Just a little note; try to keep the posts in a friendly manner. Thank you.
Alright, apologies. Andre, you’re not little, and I won’t use the word fanboy.
But honestly, how can one describe “S^3 sucking and the S^3 hardware being a generation behind their peers” as anything other than trolling?
Saying S^3 sucks is a Gizmodo comment. You are better than that. Therefore you are trolling, probably because you yourself are annoyed at someone pointing out what a major fail WinPho currently is when you’ve clearly aligned yourself intellectually and emotionally to it.
Saying S^3 hardware is a generation behind is also a direct troll. The hardware in general is the best in the industry worldwide, which you also know. The processor is a generation behind, sure. But that’s like criticising a lightweight, fuel efficient sports car for not having a 5 litre V8 engine in it, there’s just no need because everything else is so lightweight and works so well.
About that last part of fuel efficiency.
There could be even more efficiency than Nokia has now with the ARM11 design.
A Cortex A8 is inevitably more energy efficient due to optimized design. A processor like that wouldn’t need to run at 680Mhz to achieve the same as the older ARM11.
Lower clock speeds equate to lower energy consumption on top of the already lower TDP of newer generation procs. In a way using new generation HW could make a device like the N8 better.
A lower energy consumption would allow for a smaller battery which would allow a smaller chassis or extra parts.
You completely misunderstand the analogy then. If you’re in a hurry to do something and want to do it with the least energy expenditure possible, you finish it as quickly as possible even if there is an overhead involved while hoping for energy savings at the end of it all.
I.e. Shorter active time + more idle time = more battery life.
ARM11 is clearly low power and well suited for use cases and devices like the E6 and below. But in a high end device where cost is less an issue? Not justified at all.
Lol, what I’m allowed to write on this site??
Funny, I give up trying to be logical with you people.
I’m going to keep writing regardless of whether you read anything I’ve written
Trolling is not my forte, making logical arguments is.
I’ll leave you with this.
Which would you rather, a gasoline powered car that gets you to your destination in an hour or a well engineered solar-powered vehicle that while much more energy efficient takes twice as long to get there and comes without features like power-steering and antilock brakes but has all the navigation, social networking, video prowess that you could imagine in a car.
I for one would take the former
@Andre. You probably feel like you’re beating a dead horse with your reasonableness and logic, but don’t let the naysayers have the last word! Keep bringing your balanced insight.
wow andre total 180
kinda sad 
What’s wrong with 180? The OS is outdated, and is not maintained, Andre saw the light, why don’t you?
There hasn’t been a 180… I’ve been open to the idea provided there wasn’t going to be a complete threshing of everything that Nokia is. I.e ditching Ovi software and services completely and/or killing QT outright.
Right now, the only downside I’ve seen from this deal is the situation with Qt. A massive downside if you ask me but looking at it from the perspective of a company looking to make profits and grow share as well as increase penetration of their own products I can’t help but see a degree of positivity.
Believe me when I say that Nokia is getting more out of this than you realize.
open 2 the idea? we were both sooooooo bummed out when it was announced
and now you’ve turned to thrashing symbian/hardware
;_;
I imagine Nokia HOPES to be getting a lot out of this; and obviously their analysts agree
I don’t wish for it, but its not like we haven’t seen major mistakes/failures before (elops keynote for one
)
The fact we all need to face is that Nokia are literally throwing away the OS (Symbian) that has been way out in front since the invention of smartphones. For no good reason AT ALL.
Sure, Symbian is and was getting less and less competitive but that was simply due to Nokia not quite keeping it up to date enough due to their internal management structure and bureaucracy that paralysed decision making in the company. It is because of that, and that alone, that Symbian became slowly less competitive and has started to slowly fall from it’s position.
It is funny seeing these stats from IDC with Nokia STILL out in front. That shows just how incredibly good and incredibly popular Symbian really is and was. 300 million Symbian phones shipped, roughly 200 – 250 million Symbian phones (not S40) in use today (S40 has another billion in use today, every day).
Face it people, face up to the FACTS. Symbian is NOT dead and yet this is what Nokia throwing away. They are burying Symbian while it’s still very ALIVE, not dead. And people say there is no conspiracy with Microsoft or anything dodgy going on! How could there not be!?
Meanwhile, where is Windows Phone in the smartphone rankings? NOWHERE. It has SOLD (not shipped to retailers) what? – 2 million? 3 million? in HALF A YEAR with a multi-hundred-million dollar marketing campaign. Compare that with the shipments in the chart in the story above, which cover only a quarter of a year. Is that great? Is that popular? Nooooo. That is why I and many others think Nokia and MS will really struggle with their strategy, and why so many analysts think Nokia abandoning Symbian is insane (or more likely, corrupted by Microsoft or the Nokia board), because WinPho has shown NO signs of success at all, and yes I respect the fact that a few people like it. Furthermore MS has struggled even to deliver cut and paste. The point is, that does not show technical ability or competence.
Anyway, we’ll see. Unless Nokia/MS manage to pull off a major trick, they’re dead in the water in smartphone sales, and Nokia will only have S40 phones to fall back on.
“Sure, Symbian is and was getting less and less competitive but that was simply due to Nokia not quite keeping it up to date enough due to their internal management structure and bureaucracy that paralysed decision making in the company. It is because of that, and that alone, that Symbian became slowly less competitive and has started to slowly fall from it’s position.”
You answered your own question, they could not maintain it, Nokia sucks at software, competition and Symbian got too big for it.
These statistics are year-over-year, which may obscure the fact that Nokia’s smartphone volumes peaked last quarter. They’re down in Q1-2011 from Q4-2010 by around 4M units – everything is NOT hunky dory in Nokia land. The smartphone industry is seeing tremendous growth and Nokia’s unit volumes are falling, its ASPs are falling and its market share is falling.
Given the tremendous lack of success WP7 has suffered and the fact that Nokia has all but beheaded Symbian (and has nothing really compelling to sell on the Symbian platform anyway), it’s pretty reasonable to expect that Nokia will continue to lose market share, will continue to experience volume declines, will continue to see ASPs fall and will continue to suffer. I expect that next quarter’s unit volumes will be millions of units lower than this Q’s 24.2M
The statistics above are VERY negative from Nokia’s perspective. The 12.6% unit sales growth seems like it’s not all that bad because at least it’s >0, but consider that it’s below the near 80% industry average. 80% is zero – that’s the mark at which you’re just treading water vs. the rest of the industry. Nokia and RIM are failing to even keep pace with the industry – they’re drowning.