  The global mobile phone sales to end-users totaled 314.7 million units in Q1 2010 at a 17% yearly growth rate, says research firm, Gartner.
The contribution of smartphone sales to end-users was at 54.3 million units at 48.7% growth. Gartner says those manufacturers who have an integrated set of operating system (OS), hardware and services hold god potential.
"In the first quarter of 2010, smartphone sales to end users saw their strongest year-on-year increase since 2006," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “This quarter saw RIM, a pure smartphone player, make its debut in the top five mobile devices manufacturers, and saw Apple increase its market share by 1.2 percentage points. Android’s momentum continued into the first quarter of 2010, particularly in North America, where sales of Android-based phones increased 707 per cent year-on-year.
“Increasing sales of white-box products in some emerging regions, in particular India, also drove sales of mobile phones upward. We expect sales of white-box products to remain very healthy for the remainder of 2010, especially outside of China,” added Ms Milanesi.
The quarter saw Hong Kong-based manufacturer G-Five made its debut into the top 10, grabbing 1.4 % of market share. The combined market share of top 5 manufacturers dropped from 73.3 % to 70.7%.
Nokia clocked mobile phone sales of 110.1 million units at a 1.2% decline. Samsung sold 64.9 million devices in the first quarter of 2010, at a yearly rise of 26.3 %. RIM recorded 10.6 million shipments at a 45.9% rise on a yoy comparison. Sony Ericsson’s market share declined by 2.3 percentage points, but the company managed to hold on to the top five list.
Apple with its revolutionary, iPhone models posted the highest growth rate figures at 112.2 %. “Growth came partly from new communication service providers in established markets, such as the UK, and stronger sales in new markets such as China and South Korea,” said Ms Milanesi. “The second quarter of 2010 will be a very important one for Apple.” The company is now ranked 7th in the list.
In the smartphone OS space, Android and Apple emerged at the top with Android replacing Microsoft Windows Mobile for the number 4 position.
Smartphones accounted for 17.3 per cent of all mobile handset sales in the first quarter of 2010, up from 13.6 per cent in the same period in 2009.
As seen with the iPad and web books based on Google's Android platform, mobile OS ecosystems are developing and will move beyond smartphones to continue to deliver consumer value and a rich user experience,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.
Mobile e-mail, rich messaging and social networking will continue to drive demand for smartphones and enhanced phones that feature full qwerty hardware keyboards. “To compete in such a crowded market, manufacturers need to tightly integrate hardware, user interface, and cloud and social networking services if their solutions are to appeal to users,” said Ms Cozza. “Just adding a qwerty keyboard will not make a device fit the communication’s habits of today's various consumer segments.”
|