Gartner Says Worldwide Sales of Mobile

Phones Declined 3 Percent in Third Quarter

of 2012; Smartphone Sales Increased 47
Percent
Samsung Extended Its Lead in the Smartphone Market Widening the Gap with Apple
Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached almost 428 million units in the third
quarter of 2012, a 3.1 percent decline from the third quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc.
Smartphone sales accounted for 39.6 percent of total mobile phone sales, as smartphone sales
increased 46.9 percent from the third quarter of 2011.
While the mobile phone market declined year-on-year, Gartner analysts said there were positive
signs for the industry during the third quarter.
"After two consecutive quarter of decline in mobile phone sales, demand has improved in both
mature and emerging markets as sales increased sequentially," said Anshul Gupta, principal
research analyst at Gartner. In China, sales of mobile phones grew driven by sales of
smartphones, while demand of feature phones remained weak. In mature markets, we finally saw
replacement sales pick up with the launch of new devices in the quarter.
Smartphones continued to fuel sales of mobile phones worldwide with sales rising to 169.2
million units in the third quarter of 2012. The smartphone market was dominated by Apple and
Samsung. Both vendors together controlled 46.5 percent of smartphone market leaving a
handful of vendors fighting over a distant third spot, said Mr. Gupta.
Nokia slipped from No. 3 in the second quarter of 2012 to No. 7 in smartphone sales in the third
quarter of 2012. RIM moved to the No. 3 spot with HTC not far behind, at No. 4. Both HTC
and RIM have seen their sales declining in past few quarters, and the challenges might prevent
them from holding on to their current rankings in coming quarters, added Mr. Gupta.
While seasonality in the fourth quarter of 2012 will help end-of-year mobile phone sales to end
users, Gartner analysts said that there will be a lower-than-usual boost from the holiday season.
Consumers are either cautious with their spending or finding new gadgets like tablets, as more
attractive presents.
Samsungs mobile phones sales continued to accelerate, totaling almost 98 million units in the
third quarter of 2012 (see Table 1), up 18.6 percent year-on-year. Samsung saw strong demand
for Galaxy smartphones across different price points, and it further widened the gap with Apple
in the smartphone market, selling 55 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2012. It
commanded 32.5 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2012.
Table 1
Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 3Q12 (Thousands of Units)
Company 3Q12
Units
3Q12 Market Share (%) 3Q11
Units
3Q11 Market Share (%)
Samsung 97,956.8 22.9 82,612.2 18.7
Nokia 82,300.6 19.2 105,353.5 23.9
Apple 23,550.3 5.5 17,295.3 3.9
ZTE 16,654.2 3.9 14,107.8 3.2
LG Electronics 13,968.8 3.3 21,014.6 4.8
Huawei Device 11,918.9 2.8 10,668.2 2.4
TCL Communication 9,326.7 2.2 9,004.7 2.0
Research in Motion 8,946.8 2.1 12,701.1 2.9
Motorola 8,562.7 2.0 11,182.7 2.5
HTC 8,428.6 2.0 12,099.9 2.7
Others 146,115.1 34.2 145,462.2 32.9
Total 427,729.5 100.0 441,502.2 100.0
Source: Gartner (November 2012)
Nokia's mobile phone sales declined 21.9 percent in the third quarter of 2012, but overall sales at
82.3 million were better than Gartners early estimate, largely driven by increased sales of the
Asha full touch range. Nokia had a particularly bad quarter with smartphone sales, and it
tumbled to the No. 7 worldwide position with 7.2 million smartphones sold in the third
quarter. The arrival of the new Lumia devices on Windows 8 should help to halt the decline in
share in the fourth quarter of 2012, although it wont be until 2013 to see a significant
improvement in Nokias position.
Apples sales to end users totaled 23.6 million units in the third quarter of 2012, up 36.2 percent
year-on-year. We saw inventory built up into the channel as Apple prepared for the coming
holiday season, global expansions and the launch into China in the fourth quarter of 2012, said
Mr. Gupta. With iPhone 5 launching in more territories in the fourth quarter of 2012, including
China, and the upcoming holiday season Gartner analysts expect Apple will have its traditionally
strongest quarter.
In the smartphone market, Android continued to increase its market share, up 19.9 percentage
points in the third quarter of 2012. Although RIM lost market share, it climbed to the No. 3
position as Symbian is nearing the end of its lifecycle. There was also channel destocking in
preparation of new device launches for RIM, which resulted into 8.9 million sales to end users in
the third quarter of 2012. With the launch of iPhone 5, Gartner analysts expect iOS share will
grow strongly in the fourth quarter of 2012 because users held on to their replacements in many
markets ahead of the iPhone 5 wider roll out. Windows Phones share weakened quarter-on-
quarter as the Windows Phone 8 launch dampened demand of Windows Phone 7 devices.
Table 2
Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q12 (Thousands of
Units)
Operating System 3Q12
Units
3Q12 Market Share (%) 3Q11
Units
3Q11 Market Share (%)
Android 122,480.0 72.4 60,490.4 52.5
iOS 23,550.3 13.9 17,295.3 15.0
Research In Motion 8,946.8 5.3 12,701.1 11.0
Bada 5,054.7 3.0 2,478.5 2.2
Symbian 4,404.9 2.6 19,500.1 16.9
Microsoft 4,058.2 2.4 1,701.9 1.5
Others 683.7 0.4 1,018.1 0.9
Total 169,178.6 100.0 115,185.4 100.0
Source: Gartner (November 2012)
Additional information can be found in the Gartner report "Market Share: Mobile Phones by
Region and Country, 3Q12." The report is available on Gartner's website at
http://www.gartner.com/resId=2236115.


Gartner: Apple and Samsung exploded in Q2
while BlackBerry sales slid 37%
By Zach Epstein on Aug 14, 2012 at 7:45 AM
mobile
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Huge growth from Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (005930) in the second quarter wasnt enough to
offset the declines seen across most of the rest of the industry, and the global mobile phone
market shrank by 2.3% as a result. Market research firm Gartner on Tuesday released its report
on worldwide cell phone sales, which shows that an estimated 419 million cell phones were sold
to end users in the second quarter this year, down from just over 1 billion in the second quarter of
2011. IDC, which estimates channel sales and not end-user sales, said earlier this month that the
market grew by 1% year-over-year in the second quarter.
According to Gartners numbers, Apple and Samsung were the two biggest winners by a mile in
the June quarter. Apple sold an estimated 28.94 million iPhones compared to 19.63 million in the
same quarter last year, while Samsungs end-user sales climbed to 90.43 million mobile phones
from 69.83 million in the second quarter of 2011.
The only other vendors that saw growth in the quarter were Huawei and ZTE, which sold 17.94
million phones last quarter compared to 13.07 million during the same period last year. All other
vendors saw year-over-year declines according to Gartner, including HTC (2498), which sold
9.30 million phones compared to 11.02 million in Q2 2011, and RIM, which saw sales drop 37%
to 7.99 million units from 12.65 million during the same quarter last year.
Gartners full press release follows below.
Gartner Says Worldwide Sales of Mobile Phones Declined 2.3 Percent in Second Quarter of
2012
Android Extended Lead While Apple iOS Market Share Growth Paused
Egham, UK, August 14, 2012Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached 419
million units in the second quarter of 2012, a 2.3 percent decline from the second quarter of
2011, according to Gartner, Inc. Smartphone sales accounted for 36.7 percent of total mobile
phone sales and grew 42.7 percent in the second quarter of 2012.
Demand slowed further in the second quarter of 2012, said Anshul Gupta, principal research
analyst at Gartner. The challenging economic environment and users postponing upgrades to
take advantage of high-profile device launches and promotions available later in the year slowed
demand across markets. Demand of feature phones continued to decline, significantly weakening
the overall mobile phone market.
High-profile smartphone launches from key manufacturers such as the anticipated Apple iPhone
5, along with Chinese manufacturers pushing 3G and preparing for major device launches in the
second half of 2012, will drive the smartphone market upward. However, feature phones will
continue to see pressure, Mr. Gupta said.
In the second quarter of 2012, Samsungs mobile phone sales remained very strong up 29.5
percent from the second quarter of 2011 (see Table 1), and managed to extend its lead over both
Apple and Nokia quarter on quarter. This quarters growth was driven by record sales of Galaxy
smartphones, meaning smartphones now account for 50.4 percent of all Samsung mobile
devices, or 45.6 million units. Demand for the new Galaxy S3 was particularly strong, exceeding
Samsungs own expectations, with a reported 10 million units reached in the two months after its
release. The Galaxy S3 was the best-selling Android product in the quarter and could have been
higher but for product shortages.
In the second quarter of 2012, consumer demand for the Apple iPhone weakened as sales fell
12.6 percent from the first quarter of 2012, but grew 47.4 percent year on year. Depending on the
exact launch date of the new iPhone, Apple might experience another weaker-than-usual quarter
in the third quarter of 2012, while Apple will be ready to take advantage of the strong holiday
sales in North America and Western Europe that have historically remained immune to economic
pressure.
Samsung and Apple continued to dominate the smartphone market, together taking about half
the market share, and widening the gap to other manufacturers. No other smartphone vendors
had share close to 10 percent, Mr. Anshul said. In the race to be top smartphone manufacturer
in 2012, Samsung has consistently increased its lead over Apple, and its open OS market share
increased to one-and-a-half times that of Apple in the second quarter of 2012.
Table 1
Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2Q12 (Thousands of Units)
Company 2Q12
Units
2Q12 Market Share (%) 2Q11
Units
2Q11 Market Share (%)
Samsung 90,432.1 21.6 69,827.6 16.3
Nokia 83,420.1 19.9 97,869.3 22.8
Apple 28,935.0 6.9 19,628.8 4.6
ZTE 17,936.4 4.3 13,070.2 3.0
LG Electronics 14,345.4 3.4 24,420.8 5.7
Huawei Device 10,894.2 2.6 9,026.1 2.1
TCL Communications 9,355.7 2.2 7,938.9 1.9
HTC 9,301.2 2.2 11,016.1 2.6
Motorola 9,163.2 2.2 10,221.4 2.4
Research In Motion 7,991.2 1.9 12,652.3 3.0
Others 137,233.4 32.8 152,989.70 35.7
Total 419,007.90 100.0 428,661.15 100.0
Source: Gartner (August 2012)
Nokias mobile phone sales declined 14.8 percent in the second quarter of 2012. Nokia is
battling fiercely with white-box and new emerging device manufacturers to defend its feature
phones sales. Nokia succeeded, to a certain extent, in winning feature phone market share as its
sales grew quarter-on-quarter. While posting sequential growth in the feature phone market,
Nokias Lumia devices continue to struggle to find a place in consumers minds as a replacement
for Android.
Declining smartphone sales is worsening Nokias overall position, as it had already lost the No.
1 position to Samsung in the previous quarter and is facing reduced profitability due to
continuous declining sales of premium smartphones, said Mr. Gupta.
In the smartphone OS market, Android extended its lead with an increase of 20.7 percentage
points in market share in the second quarter of 2012 (see Table 2). While Apples iOS market
share slightly grew year over year (0.6 percent), it declined 3.7 percentage points quarter on
quarter, as users postponed their upgrade decisions in most markets ahead of the upcoming
launch of the iPhone 5.
Gartner analysts said the arrival of the iPhone 5 should provide the greatest upgrade opportunity
yet as the expected new design with a larger screen and likely other stylistic changes to the form
factor will certainly make a strong case for iPhone 4 users to upgrade.
Table 2
Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2Q12 (Thousands of
Units)
Operating System 2Q12
Units
2Q12 Market Share (%) 2Q11
Units
2Q11 Market Share (%)
Android 98,529.3 64.1 46,775.9 43.4
iOS 28,935.0 18.8 19,628.8 18.2
Symbian 9,071.5 5.9 23,853.2 22.1
Research In Motion 7,991.2 5.2 12,652.3 11.7
Bada 4,208.8 2.7 2,055.8 1.9
Microsoft 4,087.0 2.7 1,723.8 1.6
Others 863.3 0.6 1,050.6 1.0
Total 153,686.1 100.0 107,740.4 100.0
Source: Gartner (August 2012)
Additional information can be found in the Gartner report Market Share: Mobile Devices,
Worldwide, 2Q12. The report is available on Gartners website
at http://www.gartner.com/resId=2117915.