Nokia Still Top Phone Maker, IDC Reports

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has been losing market share lately, mainly due to the transition from the Symbian OS to Windows Phone, but it appears that it still managed to retain the top position on the mobile market.

The latest data coming from IDC shows that Nokia remained the top handset vendor in the world in 2011, and that it maintained the position in the fourth quarter of the year as well.

In Q4 2011, Nokia brought to the market its first Windows Phone devices, the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710. Although they had a slow start, Nokia still managed to sell 113.5 million devices in the timeframe, based on data from the IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

Samsung came in second with 97.6 million phones sold in Q4, while Apple grew to the third place with 37 million devices. LG Electronics fell to the fourth place with 17.7 million units, while ZTE ended the quarter on the fifth place with 17.1 million sold devices.

In the last three months of 2011, the worldwide mobile phone market grew 6.1 percent on a yearly basis. A total number of 427.4 million units were shipped in the timeframe, compared to 402.8 million units in the same period the year before.

"The mobile phone market exhibited unusually low growth last quarter, which shows it is not immune to weaker macroeconomic conditions worldwide," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

"The introduction of high-growth products such as the iPhone 4S, which shipped in the fourth quarter, bolstered smartphone growth. Yet overall market growth fell to its lowest point since 3Q09 when the global economic recession was in full bloom."

IDC also notes that feature phones registered a steep decline in the three-month period. However, even if smartphones enjoy increased popularity, feature phones still account for the largest chunk of shipments.

"Feature phones accounted for a majority of shipments from four of the five market leaders during the quarter," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team.

"Even though their proportion is eroding, feature phones maintain their appeal on the basis of price and ease of use.”

For the full year, the mobile phone market experienced a growth of 11.1 percent in 2011, down from the 18.7 percent growth experienced the year before.