Nokia, which ruled the mobile phone market for over a decade, has now lost its position to Samsung in Western Europe. Nokia shipments dropped 10.3 per cent year-on-year to 12.6 million units and is now the second player with 27.9 per cent market share, according to IDC’s European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report.
While, Samsung shipments increased 5.3 per cent year-on-year to 13.2 million units and the Korean giant became the biggest mobile phone maker in the region with 29.3 per cent market share.
In the smartphone space, Apple became the biggest player with 20.8 per cent market share with its shipments increased 48.9 per cent year-on-year to 4.4 million units. Nokia comes second with 19.6 per cent market share.
“Samsung and Apple achieved outstanding milestones this quarter in the region. Samsung became the biggest mobile phone vendor in Western Europe and Apple the biggest smartphone vendor. These results show how volatile this market is and how important it is not to underestimate the trends. Companies like Nokia (and Ericsson in the past) may have strong brands and big market shares as Nokia always had, but can be overtaken by their competitors on a blink of an eye,” said Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager, IDC.
Samsung, which has smartphones with both Google’s Android and its own Bada operating system, has been very successful. However, Apple has emerged as a winner in this space thanks to its iPhone, which has been a resounding success ever since it first launched in 2007 and with every new update it is adding to its fan base.
During the last quarter smartphones shipments increased 76 per cent compared to same period last year to 21.2 million units to represent 47 per cent of total mobile phone shipments.
Android is the leader of smartphones operating systems with 35.7 per cent market share. Those vendors focusing mainly on Android have notably been improving their market positions in smartphone segment.
Apple’s iOS comes second with 20.8 per cent market share due the popularity of the iPhone. Symbian slipped to third place with 20.5 per cent market share. Windows phone 7, which is to replace Symbian in Nokia devices, doesn’t figure in the list.
It will be interesting to see how Nokia performs in other markets across the globe. As of now Nokia has managed to retain number one spot when we look at overall worldwide market thanks to better demand for its products in Asia and Africa.
Another important thing to track will be the impact Windows phone 7 (WP7) adoption as smartphone platform by Nokia has on its sales figures, when first WP7 based phones starts appearing beginning 2012.
Current market share standing in Western Europe is Samsung (29.3 per cent), Nokia (27.9 per cent), Apple (9.8 per cent), Blackberry(7.8 per cent), HTC (17.4 per cent) and others.