Smartphone Sales Rocket 96 Percent, Gartner Finds

People just love their mobile phones, particularly their smartphones, after new research from analyst house Gartner found that worldwide mobile phone sales grew 35 percent in the third quarter.

But this was nothing compared to the 96 percent rise in smartphone sales during the same period.

In the third quarter, Gartner said there had been a total of 417 million mobile phones sold to end-users around the world, a 35 percent increase from the third quarter of 2009. But it is the smartphone segment that is the real star performer, after sales here grew 96 percent from the third quarter last year.

Hot Sector

Gartner found that smartphones now account for 19.3 percent of overall mobile phone sales in the third quarter of 2010.

“This is the third consecutive double-digit increase in sales year-on-year, indicating that consumer demand is healthy,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “This quarter saw Apple and Android drive record smartphone sales. Apple’s share of the smartphone market surpassed Research In Motion (RIM) in North America to put it second behind Android while Android volumes also grew rapidly making it the No. 2 operating system worldwide.”

Apple Passes RIM

And it seems as though the usual suspects still dominate proceedings, with Nokia (28.2 percent market share), Samsung (17.2 percent) and LG (6.6 percent) remained the same – albeit with reduced market share due to shortages of components, such as camera modules and displays.

But the big news was that Apple (3.2 percent) rose into the top five manufacturers, surpassing RIM (2.9 percent) for fourth place.

“Apple delivered a stellar performance in the third quarter of 2010, selling 13.5 million units,” said Gartner. “It could have sold more but for its ongoing supply constraints and is now in fourth place worldwide.”

Gartner also said that while Apple remains focused on consumers, enterprise adoption of the iPhone and iPad has grown.

RIM on the other hand sold 11.9 million devices to end users in the third quarter of 2010, and its global share of the smartphone market fell to 14.8 percent.

Gartner pointed out that RIM is feeling the effects of the iPhone 4, and new Android devices such as the Motorola Droid X, Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Incredible and Evo.

It should be noted that Apple’s growth has also been witnessed by IDC with its own figures earlier this month when it found that Nokia had a 32.4 percent market share, followed by Samsung (21 percent), then LG (8.3 percent), with Apple jumping ahead of RIM to claim fourth position with a 4.1 percent market share.

Mobile OS

But who is winning the mobile operating system battle? Gartner said that Android accounted for 25.5 percent of worldwide smartphone sales thanks to a strong performance in North America, making it the number two operating system behind Symbian, which despite its recent turmoil still enjoys a commanding 36.6 percent market share figure.

Apple’s iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iTouch) reached 16.7 percent, with RIM on 14.8 percent. It is too early to gauge the impact of Windows Phone 7, but Gartner said that Microsoft Windows Mobile registered 2.8 percent market share, so the only way is up for the new operating system.

“Smartphone OS providers have entered a period of accelerated platform evolution, stimulated by more regular product releases, new platform entrants and new device types,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Any platform that fails to innovate quickly – either through a vibrant multi-player ecosystem or clear vision of a single controlling entity – will lose developers, manufacturers, potential partners and ultimately users.”

Future Outlook

Looking forward, Gartner expects overall devices sales to be 30 percent for 2010 over the previous year. It warns that the impact of media tablets on mobile device sales will be tested in 2011. Gartner forecasts that media tablets (such as the Apple iPad) will reach 54.8 million units in 2011.

“Apple’s dramatic expansion of iOS with the iPad and the continuing success of the iPod Touch are important sales achievements in their own right. But more importantly they contribute to the strength of Apple’s ecosystem and the iPhone in a way that smartphone-only manufacturers cannot compete with,” said Milanesi.

“To a developer, the iPod Touch and iPhone (and to a lesser extent the iPad) are effectively the same device and a single market opportunity. While Android is increasingly available on media tablets and media players like the Galaxy Player, it lags far behind iOS’s multi-device presence. Apple claims it is activating around 275,000 iOS devices per day on average – that’s a compelling market for any developer. And developers’ applications in turn attract users.”

Additional information can be found here in the Gartner report “Competitive Landscape: Mobile Devices, Worldwide, 3Q10.”