IDC has released their quarterly report of the mobile phone market. They state that in Q3 2012 the industry grew 2.4% over last year with shipments totalling 444.5 million. Smartphone shipments made up 179.7 million of the total, increasing 45.3% over last year (123.7 million).
Samsung remained the leader in Q3, shipping 105.4 million devices, representing a commanding 23.7% market share. Nokia was second, but falling fast, with 82.9 million handsets and capturing 18.7% market share. Apple took third place with 6.1% market share and shipped 26.9 million iPhones. LG and ZTE followed in 4th and 5th spot.
Shifting to specifically smartphones is a different story. Samsung and Apple dominated this arena with 31.3% and 15.0% market share respectively. Surprisingly it’s RIM that captured 3rd place, taking over from Nokia’s position and their trailing Lumai Windows Phone 8 devices. RIM hasn’t released a new smartphone in months, but managed to ship 7.7 million BlackBerry smartphones, earning 4.3% market share. However, it’s important to note that even capturing a respectable 3rd place, RIM has experienced a massive 34.7% drop in market share when compared to last year. With BlackBerry 10 coming up in Q1 2013 it’ll be interesting to see how they perform.
Kevin Restivo of IDC stated “Nokia’s share losses have meant gains for competitors. The company’s transition away from Symbian-powered smartphones to ones shipped with Windows Phone has left ample opportunity for rivals to steal share away from Nokia over the past 18 months. However, the smartphone market is still relatively nascent, which means there’s room for multiple vendors and operating systems to flourish, including Nokia.”
